Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

What recent assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on poverty rates in the Global South.

COVID-19 is likely to have resulted in over 140 million additional people living in extreme poverty – around 2% of the global population – and many more will have temporarily fallen below the poverty line. This is a seven-year reversal in progress to reduce poverty.

The UK is one of the largest donors to the COVID-19 international response, committing up to £1.3bn of new ODA to counter the health, economic, humanitarian impacts, and to support the global effort to find and equitably distribute a vaccine.