Watch Hilary’s question to the Foreign Secretary on this issue here.

I am strongly opposed to the Government’s decision to cut the UK’s overseas aid budget by a third.

I was International Development Secretary when the last Labour government committed to achieving the 0.7 percent target by 2013, and I am proud of the fact that successive governments have honoured this pledge. It is therefore, in my view, unforgiveable for the current government to break this particular promise to the world’s poorest.

Aid is not only morally right – it helps to educate girls, delivers babies safely and vaccinates children so that they don’t die of diseases that our children don’t die of – but it is also in our national interest to help the poorest countries prosper and develop.

There is growing cross-party criticism of this decision and I hope that the legislation to implement this cut, which the government has said it will bring forward, is defeated.

Hilary Benn
MP for Leeds Central