RESULTS UK welcomed the Prime Minister’s support for international aid during a live radio interview on LBC on Wednesday. Faced with tough challenges to overseas spending from a caller, who herself has struggled to pay for cancer treatment in the UK, Cameron spoke out in defence of the aid budget by arguing that dismissing the plight of the world’s poor would be morally wrong.

When further quizzed by LBC presenter Nick Ferrari on the ring-fencing of the aid budget, currently standing at just 0.56% of the country’s GDP, Mr Cameron provided solid, quantifiable examples of why keeping our promises to help the poorest people in the world is in both our national and broader humanitarian interests. When asked what the aid budget is spent on Cameron said;

“One thing we’ve done over the last couple of years is invest in vaccines and immunisations for children in the poorest countries in the world.”

“That act alone has probably saved the lives of about 3 million children worldwide.”

In addition to this, Cameron put forward the argument that helping countries lift themselves out of poverty might actually prevent further problems for the UK, caused by mass migration and UK involvement in conflicts with unstable, poverty-ridden states.

RESULTS UK welcomes this timely defence of foreign aid on both humanitarian and pragmatic grounds. We wait with anticipation to see how the Prime Minister proposes to shape the future direction of global development when the Millennium Develpoment Goals expire in 2015. Mr Cameron is the Co-Chair of the Post 2015 High Level Panel Review, and thus the UK is in a unique position to show true global leadership in helping bring about the end of poverty.