The world’s most vulnerable need an ambitious UK government

Expectations are high for the new UK government. With ongoing violence in Gaza, global poverty and the climate emergency, there’s no shortage of issues for Keir Starmer’s government to focus on. Sophie Powell, Chief of UK Advocacy and Campaigns for Christian Aid shares what she hopes will be in the King’s Speech. 

King Charles will deliver the King’s Speech on 17 July as part of the State Opening of Parliament.

The speech will give the country the clearest signal yet of Labour’s ambition in government. It is rumored the government will come forward with at least 30 new Bills, making for an action-packed legislative programme to come.

We cannot forget the global challenges that this Labour government will be tasked to meet. The world has now reached the first year-long breach of 1.5 degrees of global warming, one in ten people in the world live in extreme poverty, the wars on Gaza and Ukraine are having devastating humanitarian consequences, and there’s a huge financing gap that must be bridged for lower income countries to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. If there was ever a time for ambitious legislation, it’s now. 

We should build genuine partnerships with the Global South

At Christian Aid, we are not party political, but we know that the injustices we see reflect political choices. Global poverty is the result of unequal access to power and resources, rooted in a long history in which the UK has played a significant part and has a crucial role in helping to repair.

The new government’s commitment, re-affirmed by Anneliese Dodds MP, the new Minister for International Development, to rebuild the UK’s development reputation based on genuine partnership with the Global South is hugely welcome, so we look forward to seeing the actions that need to flow from this.

If change was the theme of the election that took Labour into government, urgency is the measure by which it will need to govern.

In Christian Aid’s pre-election manifesto, created alongside a global movement of people, churches and local organisations, we set out bold action to tackle the biggest challenges of our time. The good news is that the new government has important tools at its disposal to grasp this moment and make an outsized difference.

Finances need to reflect the scale of the problems 

We are urging the new government to show how it will raise the finance needed to tackle the climate crisis and deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. With the UN General Assembly and then COP29 around the corner, time is of the essence in setting out plans that will be seen by the Global South as a litmus test of this government’s ability to lead.

Specifically, the new government should take a bolder approach to taxation, including increasing tax on the wealthiest individuals and the most polluting companies, to generate resources for providing our fair share of climate finance as well as for tackling significant domestic needs.

The government could also secure debt cancellation for lower income countries in debt crisis so they can instead invest in public services and climate action. Our latest report – Between Life and Debt – calculated that African governments spent over 50 times more on external debt payments than the entire UK aid budget to the continent in 2023, with 32 spending more on debt than healthcare and 25 spending more on debt than education. 

In response, the former Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, questioned if the “world will ever forgive us for failing to deliver urgent debt restructuring.” There is no reason to fail, because the UK government has significant powers to compel action from private creditors through introducing new legislation.

The public supports these aims

Neither of the measures we are talking about here would impact the average UK taxpayer. Indeed, the public is with us. Polling last year by Savanta, commissioned by Christian Aid, showed over half of the British public (54%) believe the UK Government should introduce legislation to cancel debt while 4 in 5 (82%) believe it is wrong for oil and gas companies to make record profits without taking responsibility for the climate damage caused.

With that support, the false choice of responding to poverty at home and fulfilling our responsibilities to the poorest people should be firmly put in the dustbin of history. We can do both.

We must try to put an end to the violence in Gaza

Palestinian Children’s Council President, Mais Abdel Hadi, warns children in Gaza live in a “constant state of fear and anxiety, with shells accompanying us around the clock…”, and asks, “why must we children pay such a horrendous price?”

Only an immediate ceasefire, the respect of international humanitarian law, humanitarian access and the release of hostages can stop the suffering across Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. The former government has placed the UK at risk of complicity in serious violations of international law due to its failure to halt arms sales to Israel. We urge the new UK government to right this wrong, including denouncing the de facto annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank.

The King’s Speech can and must be a clear signal of what a Labour government will deliver. Over the coming weeks and months, we urge Ministers to champion the above measures with the urgency that the global challenges we face require.

Sophie Powell, Chief of UK Advocacy and Campaigns for Christian Aid