ECONOMIC DOWNTURN NO EXCUSE TO RENEGE ON AID PROMISES.

ECONOMIC DOWNTURN NO EXCUSE TO RENEGE ON AID PROMISES.

‘MONEY NEEDED MORE THAN EVER IN WORLD’S POOREST PLACES’

SNP International Development spokesperson, Pete Wishart MP, has called on the UK Government to rule out cuts to the international aid budget after Oxfam Scotland expressed real concern that the aid budget is going to face harsh cuts which will mean that the UK Government will no longer meet its Gleneagles promises.

These cuts would come at a time when a weaker pound is already reducing the amount UK aid money buys aboard. Combined with the projected aid cut, it could reduce the value of UK aid by more than a third.

Mr Wishart has tabled an EDM calling on the Chancellor to reconsider and reminding him of the UK Government’s commitment at the G8 in 2005 to boost international aid spending and reduce poverty worldwide.

Mr Wishart said:

“Hundreds of thousands of people – myself included - marched through Edinburgh in 2005 calling on the UK Government to make poverty history and increase international aid spending.

“Gordon Brown himself lobbied for a new world order based on fairness at the G20 in London where he called on his fellow world leaders to provide assistance to the world’s poorest people just a few short weeks ago.

“His words are now echoing hollowly around Whitehall as the Treasury looks for soft targets in the run up to the Budget.

“London Labour must look to Scotland where the SNP Scottish Government has doubled the international aid budget over the life of the Scottish Parliament.

“The International Development budget funds vital projects across the world. The current economic crisis must not be used as an excuse to renege on promises to the world’s most vulnerable people. Indeed, this is a global financial crisis, and this money is needed more than ever in the world’s poorest places.”