Category: Tory Threat
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Left Foot Forward on Tory delays on passing 0.7% law
Left Foot Forward reports on the Tory-led government delay in enshrining the 0.7% target in law. Reminding readers that, it’s not the first time that the Tories have broken this commitment; As Left Foot Forward reported on June 4th 2010, just weeks after the election, it’s a promise the Tories failed to immediately deliver once they’d made it…
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Tories break manifesto commitment to legislate on aid spending
Today’s Sun reveals that legislation to ensure Britain meets the UN goal of 0.7 per cent spending on international aid will be delayed despite a manifesto commitment from the Tories ahead of the 2010 election that they would; “legislate in the first session of a new Parliament to lock in this level of spending for every year from…
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On International Women’s Day call on the Government to back up UN Women
Today is International Women’s Day, Labour is holding the Conservative-led Government to account on its promise to women around the world. This comes a week after support for UN Women was left out of the aid review. In an email, Harriet Harman asked people to ask them why: Today is International Women’s Day. Join me…
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Why is the government delaying the Bribery Act?
This article was first posted on Left Foot Forward One of the last acts of the Labour government was to pass the Bribery Act 2010, which should enable courts to respond more effectively to bribery both at home but also abroad. It was passed with support from all parties, who acknowledged the UK needed to…
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Tax Havens, Conservatives and the Developing World
After the recent investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches programme that Conservative Ministers, Andrew Mitchell the International Development Secretary amongst them, store their wealth in off-shore bank accounts, the question of the harm done by these locations and their practices are now being asked. The figure quoted in the Dispatches investigation is that for every £1…
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Congratulations to Ed Miliband
LCID congratulates Ed Miliband MP on becoming the new leader of the Labour Party. We look forward to working with the former Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change to ensure global poverty stays high on the parties agenda in the coming years. During the Leadership campaign we asked Ed about his views on…
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Could the Government be about to destroy the International Development Act?
By Margaret Dantas Araujo Some of the UK’s biggest charities, Oxfam, CAFOD, and Save the Children, have publically raised concerns about the growing threat of securitisation of the aid budget. The use of aid for political reasons would be in direct contravention of the International Development Act 2002. The act, explicitly states, (1)The Secretary of…
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Conservatives plan foreign office raid on DfID
By Margaret Dantas Araujo Poverty reduction in the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries is best achieved when DfID is directing the deployment of our aid budget. However, yet another leaked memo has shed light on Tory intentions to bring Dfid cash under the control of the Foreign Office by requesting that UK security be…
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Where is the coalition’s leadership, vision and ambition on aid?
by David Taylor, for Left Foot Forward Yesterday The Observer reported that it had received an email confirming that only eight of Labour’s 100 commitments are to be saved. They come as part of the Tories’ drive for ‘value for money’ for UK aid, something we at Left Foot Forward have consistently argued is a…
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New Statesman: Mitchell’s “silent withdrawal” of aid budget ringfencing
This from the New Statesman, full story here: In a recent interview with the New Statesman, Mitchell admitted that the promise to ringfence the development budget was “the sort of thing you make in opposition, then rather regret in government.” As the autumn spending review looms, the pressure on departments to find spending cuts is…
Labour Campaign for International Development 