It’s always great to end the week on a high and that is exactly what we’re doing today at RESULTS UK with the news that the Private Member’s Bill to legislate for the UK to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) on overseas aid was passed to the next stage of the legislative process this afternoon.
Despite heightened nerves at the beginning of the week due to the Scottish referendum, 166 supportive MPs turned up to vote on a bill that will ensure that British aid continues to save lives. We applaud the commitment of these MPs many of whom made impassioned speeches in defence of UK aid to developing countries. Champions of aid and development from all three parties turned up to give impassioned speeches on why the UK should legislate on this vital issue.
Britain has a proud history of supporting aid. This support has meant that over 10 million children every year have the chance to go to school. It also means that a child’s life is saved every two minutes as a result of British aid supporting immunisation. Incredibly, since the year 2000 the number of children’s lives lost to malaria and has halved and, since 1990, we’ve halved the rate of child mortality. By turning up today, these MPs have ensured that this British aid will continue to have a transformative impact on many more millions of women and children worldwide.
Importantly, the MPs who did turn up and vote for the UK to spend 0.7% of GNI on overseas aid are reflecting the mood of the British public. As we mentioned just the other day, recent research from ComRes revealed that the majority of the UK public support the 0.7% level. The British public recognise the importance of working to ensure developing countries can reach their full potential and achieve self-reliance in the long term.
This brings us to our final and most important group to thank – our grassroots campaigners across the country. Without the incredible efforts of our grassroots campaigners and colleagues it is likely we’d be sitting here right now wondering why our MPs weren’t voting in a way that reflected the national mood or in a way that would ensure the saving of millions of lives. But we’re not. All thanks to a great country wide campaign in the past few weeks. We’ve had grassroots campaigners meeting with their MPs across the country and many others picking up the phone, writing letters and sending out tweets in passionate support of this bill.
So it isn’t just the MPs we’re applauding today. We’re also saying a huge thank you to all of our grassroots who have supported this campaign. We’ll certainly be celebrating today and we hope you’ll all be doing the same.