John Battle MP Calls For New Aid Fund

He said, “Britain and the whole global community have signed up to the Millennium Development Goals, to halve poverty by 2015. It’s a huge task but absolutely vital, and time is short. I’m calling for a very small stamp duty on currency transactions to raise extra money for aid – and, of course, the aid must be spent carefully with conditions to make sure it’s used well and reaches the poorest.

“The stamp duty would raise a tiny amount each time someone gets their holiday money or a firm imports or exports, and those tiny amounts from each transaction will add up to a useful amount of aid. I’m backing a stamp duty of 0.005% - half of one hundredth of a per cent – 5p per £1,000. That’s too low to affect trade or tourism, but high enough to raise £3billion extra a year for aid, which would save a lot of lives and give a lot more children an education.”

Mr Battle has co-sponsored Early Day Motion 500 in the House of Commons to call MPs across the parties to support the idea.

“Live8 shows the vast public interest in tackling world poverty – and I know from my own postbag that’s shared by people in West Leeds,” he added. “Just last week I was visiting Stanningley Primary School and was asked ‘What are you doing to send my friend in Mali to school?’ It’s a good question.”

Full text of Early Day Motion 500:

Stamp Duty on Sterling Currency Transactions to Fund International Aid

That this House is deeply concerned that thousands of men, women and children die from hunger and preventable diseases every day and that this is unacceptable when the technology, expertise and resources exist to eliminate poverty; welcomes the call from global leaders for an extra $50 billion each year to pay from the UN Millennium Development Goals for the provision of clean water, healthcare and education to the world’s most deprived people, notes that a simple stamp duty on currency transactions is technically possible and would bridge this funding gap; therefore calls on the Government to impose on sterling currency transactions a very small stamp duty of one half of one hundredth of one percent (0.005%) to generate as much as £3 billion each year in extra revenue dedicated to international development; and strongly urges the Government, in this unprecedented year when the UK holds the chair of the G8 and presidency of the EU, to play a leadership role in developing this powerful new income stream to help bring millions of people out of poverty.

©John Battle MP 6 July 2005