SNP could not fund aid, says Benn

from The Scotsman

MURDO MACLEOD POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

LABOUR has claimed that an independent Scotland would be unable to play its part in fighting world poverty.

International Development Secretary Hillary Benn said that if it left the UK, Scotland would no longer have the cash to fund its part in overseas projects such as the fight against disease and poverty in Africa and to campaign for and fund debt relief.

The SNP has accused Labour of "scare-mongering" and pointed out the UK does not meet its own international aid targets.

Speaking at the Labour Party Youth and Student Conference in Glasgow, Benn said: "The choice this century will be between a world that looks outwards, embraces multilateralism and makes it work in all our interests, and a world in which isolationism and narrow nationalism hold sway.

"What we do, when we have the chance, to fight global poverty is the real test. Would an independent Scotland led by the SNP fund the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, which will save children's lives? Would it help finance the African Union mission in Darfur? Would it help finance debt cancellation? And how would it do all this with an £11bn hole in the finances?"

Labour has constantly said that an independent Scotland would have to deal with a huge budget deficit, a claim that the Nationalists do not accept. Home Secretary John Reid has also claimed that, as a small country, an independent Scotland would be unable to deal with the threat of international terrorism.

An SNP spokesman said: "Hillary Benn is a member of the UK government, which for decades has failed to meet international aid targets. Tony Blair's international legacy is a war in Iraq and £25bn to be spent on a new replacement for Trident, which we do not need and which will do nothing to alleviate world poverty. The SNP has always said that an independent Scotland will meet its international aid obligations, just as other small and successful European countries have done and are doing."

• Writing in today's Scotland on Sunday, Tony Blair claims that Labour has so successfully managed the Scottish economy that Edinburgh is now the third-richest part of the UK, after Notting Hill and Chelsea.

In a sneak preview of a Labour analysis to be released at the end of this week, the Prime Minister also says that his party has lifted 200,000 children and 200,000 pensioners out of poverty.