The Chair of CAFOD’s All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), Catherine McKinnell MP, has said that “the public has a big heart” when it comes to international development, but the Government “needs to show leadership”.
Speaking at the Catholic Union’s latest Pub Talk, sponsored by the Universe Catholic Weekly, Ms McKinnell said that cutting the international aid budget was “short sighted”.
The Labour MP for Newcastle North suggested that reducing development spending to 0.5 percent of GDP risked contributing to mass migration as UK aid spending had been used to tackle barriers to development in some of the poorest countries around the world.
Ms McKinnell, who is Chair of a cross party group of MPs and peers who support CAFOD’s work, said that groups like CAFOD and the Catholic Union were “beacons of solidarity” in opposing the cut in international aid spending.
Pushed on whether Labour would reverse the cuts and reestablish a Department for International Development, Ms McKinnell said that her party’s policy had yet to be agreed but that she hoped that Labour would increase aid spending and make it a priority if in Government.
Labour’s General Election manifesto is expected to be discussed at the party’s National Policy Forum later this month. Ms McKinnell, who is also Chair of Parliament’s Petitions Committee, said that “writing to your MP is important” when it comes to policy concerns.
Chrstine Allen, Director, of CAFOD, introduced Ms McKinnell and chaired the discussion. She provided some recent examples of CAFOD’s work in supporting sustainable development around the world from putting solar panels on a farm in Piauí, Brazil to digging boreholes in Sierra Leone.
The event was the latest in a series of “Pub Talks” organised by the Catholic Union at the Windsor Castle pub in Victoria. Started at the beginning of the year, the events have reached well over 100 people so far. More information on the Catholic Union’s events can be found here.