Your chance to question the leadership candidates on international development

By David Taylor and the LCID team

In the next few weeks, the Labour Campaign for International Development will be asking the leadership contenders about their priorities for international development, and we want you to pick the most important issues by taking part in our poll.

The Labour government lead the world on international development – through the creation of DfID, debt relief, trebling aid and leadership of the G8 we helped lift 3 million people out of poverty each year, put 40 million more children into school, gain 3 million people access to life-preserving drugs for HIV and AIDs and transform peoples lives.

Now in opposition, Labour must make sure we hold the new coalition to account. Because whilst they might say they’ll ring fence aid spending, beneath the warm words the detail is either disingenuous, or conspicuous by its absence.

They say they’ll meet the 0.7% pledge, but they want to do that by trying to broaden the definition of aid to include refugee and students costs, and possibly defence spending. There is nothing in the agreement to make any aid for helping countries tackle climate change additional and not sucked from the existing budget – a key Lib Dem pledge, they’ve gone completely AWOL. Much like David Cameron at the recent G8, which saw the bn aid pledge agreed in 2005 dropped from the summit communiqué, which Downing Street admitted it had simply “not fought” for.

It falls to Labour therefore to continue our leadership on development and provide the vision and ambition so lacking from the coalition. That’s why we’re keen to hear from all the leadership candidates their priorities for international development.

We’d like your help pick the most important issues we should question them on and we’d like you to take part in our poll. By going to our website you can vote for your top policy areas and if you can’t see your top priorities there, submit your ideas. The poll closes on Wednesday 21 July.

What will we be doing with the questions? We’ll be filming the candidates as they answer your questions and we’ll be premiering the video on our website in August. Stay tuned!

Related posts:

1. Where next for UK international development policy?
2. If a vote for one of the Labour leadership candidates is an answer, what was the question?
3. The Labour Campaign for International Development is ready to launch – please join us
4. LCID: Making the case for Labour’s approach to international development
5. International development is both a moral cause and a common cause