Labour to promise law to ensure international aid tackles climate crisis

Exclusive: Legislation to prioritise ‘greatest threat to humanity’ as Labour restores 0.7 per cent aid commitment

Preet Gill will promise to restore the independence of overseas development assistance within Whitehall (UK Parliament)

A Labour government would pass a law to require the UK’s overseas aid spending to prioritise action to tackle the climate crisis, The Independent can reveal.

In a speech to Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool later today, shadow international aid secretary Preet Gill will confirm the party’s commitment to restore the requirement for 0.7 per cent of national income to go to aid, after it was slashed to 0.5 per cent by Boris Johnson.

And she will say that a Labour government will introduce a new focus on using UK assistance to developing countries to address “this century’s biggest threat to humanity”.