International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Bill

Jeremy Corbyn Excerpts

Friday 5th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mark Reckless]

I give way to the hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn).

[Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. He is obviously not aware that very large numbers of people in this county feel passionately about inequality in the world, about the Ebola crisis and about many other crises, and that they believe that donating money, through the taxpayer and individually, to help to alleviate that terrible suffering involves a moral duty as well as a public good.

[Mark Reckless]

I am aware that there is a significant number of people in that category, and I pay tribute to what many of them do through their private charity in choosing to give their own money to charitable causes, whether here or overseas. But that is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about taking away money from our constituents under threat of law and forcibly transferring it overseas. I say again that reputable polling on what our constituents believe shows that two thirds of them want to reduce overseas aid and only 7% fall into the category that contains almost everyone in this Chamber, who want it to increase.