John is campaigning for major increases to the international aid budget in Gordon Brown’s spending plans, to be announced next week.

“I tabled a Parliamentary motion, Early Day Motion 421, calling for steady increases in the aid budget to reach the target of 0.7% of national income which is recommended by the United Nations,” he said. “Well over 200 MPs have given it their support, which makes it one of the most popular motions and shows the strength of feeling in Parliament on this issue.

“I get more letters from my constituents about aid, fair trade, international debt and related issues than on almost anything else, as do many other MPs – and I’ve noticed a great increase in people’s concerns about these things in the last five to ten years.

“I support the Chancellor’s major spending boost for the NHS and trust he will announce next week that it will continue, and I also welcome extra money for the police and for tax credits – but aid budget increases are vital too. We have signed up to the Millennium Development Goals to halve world poverty by 2015, and it cannot be done without more aid. Only a few countries do give the 0.7% of national income in aid – Norway and Sweden do – but others like Ireland and France have recently published a timetable to get there in the next few years, and so should we.”

John is a patron of the very active local campaigning group TIDAL, Trade Injustice and Debt Action Leeds, who are campaigning on this issue. Nationally, Cafod, Oxfam, Christian Aid and all the main aid charities are calling for the 0.7% target.

Under the Conservatives, Britain’s aid fell from 0.52% of national income in 1979 to 0.26% in 1997. This Government have increased it to 0.34% in 2003, with a rise to 0.4% scheduled for 2006.

All 7 Leeds MPs able to sign the motion have done; Hilary Benn is unable to sign as he is a Government Minister.

The full text of Early Day Motion 421: Reaching the Millennium Development Goals is:

That this House welcomes the commitment by international institutions and the United Kingdom Government to the Millennium Development Goals, including the goal of halving the proportion of the world's population living in absolute poverty by 2015; notes with extreme concern the warnings of the United Nations, World Bank and others that without significantly increased development assistance many countries will not meet these goals, and that pledges made as part of the Financing for Development process represent positive but insufficient progress towards making the necessary resources available; congratulates Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Luxembourg for achieving the United Nations 0.7 per cent. target, and Ireland, Belgium and France for setting clear timetables for reaching the target by 2007, 2010 and 2012 respectively; acknowledges recent progress in the United Kingdom in increasing aid, including the commitment to raise the United Kingdom aid budget to 0.4 per cent. of GDP by 2006 as well as proposals for an International Financing Facility to leverage additional resources of up to $50 billion; believes that the United Kingdom Government should continue to lead by example and therefore calls on the United Kingdom Government to use the 2004 Spending Review to set out a timetable for reaching the United Nations target, in response to the member organisations of BOND calling on the United Kingdom to spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on overseas development assistance by 2008.

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©John Battle MP 8th July 2004

CAMPAIGN SUCCEEDS WITH MASSIVE AID INCREASE

John welcomed Chancellor Gordon Brown’s announcement of a 9% increase in the aid budget, on top of inflation, for each year for the next three years, and the Chancellor’s target of reaching the UN aid target of 0.7% national income by 2013.

“This is wonderful news and I am very pleased that the Chancellor has listened to our lobbying,” said John. “The Department for International Development is getting the highest budget increase across Government, and quite right too.”

©John Battle MP 13th August 2004