Save The Children Campaign
The Conservatives are deeply concerned about the effects of child poverty both at home and abroad.
It is for this reason that the Conservatives have a clear aspiration to end child poverty in the UK. We are committed to tackling the causes of poverty through radical welfare reform, providing more good school places, supporting families and tackling problem debt and addiction.
Furthermore, with billions of people around the world living in poverty, we have an urgent moral and practical imperative to make our international development policy more effective. We are committed to achieving the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income as aid by 2013. Our top priority will be to ensure that every single pound of taxpayers’ money delivers the maximum impact – so we will establish an Independent Aid Watchdog to monitor the performance of the Department for International Development. We’ll move towards results-based aid, where money is handed to governments only when development results have been achieved. We’ll focus our aid on the countries where it will make the biggest difference, and spend £500 million a year to save lives by tackling malaria. We will put maximum effort into achieving an ambitious, pro-development global trade deal, because trade will do more to eliminate poverty than anything else. And we will give much greater importance to conflict prevention and resolution – because a nation mired in conflict remains vulnerable until the fighting stops, no matter how much aid or trade it receives.
We have been clear in that we agree with the sentiment behind the ‘Robin Hood’ campaign, and I’ve written about that on this site. The Conservatives have been calling for an internationally-agreed tax on banks, which could raise billions of pounds to fund domestic and international policies, including action to help the most vulnerable at home and abroad. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is producing a report on what form such a tax might take. They are considering the practicality of a transaction tax, alongside other options like a levy, a form of which President Obama has proposed and the Swedish government has implemented.
In addition, we recognise that climate change is already hitting some of the poorest people in the world, and urgent action is needed to cut emissions and help protect people from the impact of rising temperatures. David Cameron has made this a personal priority of his. We have signed up to the 10:10 campaign, and committed to cutting UK government emissions by 10% within 12 months of the general election. And as we have repeatedly stated, we also support international negotiations on new mechanisms to provide additional funding for this important issue.
