African aid plan a signal of hope, Blair tells Commons

Tony Blair has defended the action plan for Africa agreed by the world's wealthiest nations as a "real signal of hope for the future".

In a Commons statement yesterday on last week's G8 summit, he said: "For the first time, there is a comprehensive plan dealing with all aspects of the African plight. For the first time, it is constructed with reforming African leaders as partners, not passive recipients of aid."

The opposition parties welcomed the package of help, under which British spending on Africa will rise from about £650m a year to £1bn by 2006. But the Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, complained that the meeting of world leaders in Canada was also a "missed opportunity" for failing to take tougher action against Zimbabwe.

Mr Blair told MPs: "Africa's potential is enormous. Yet a child in Africa dies of disease, famine or conflict every three seconds. These are facts that shame the civilised world."

He insisted the world leaders would see through the plans – under which aid is linked to good governance – to an African renaissance. "It is a new departure. It is a real signal of hope for the future. It is up to us now to make it a reality. Africa does matter; to us and to humanity."

Mr Duncan Smith said the G8 summit should have sent a "stark signal to dictators by using Robert Mugabe to show there would be no meaningful partnership for development with countries, which did not respect political freedom and the rule of law".

He added: "The G8 summit could have demanded fresh presidential elections in Zimbabwe and co-ordinated sanctions between the EU and North America." The Prime Minister said Zimbabwe would not benefit from the African plan because of its government's "outrageous conduct". He insisted: "It is only the countries that engage in good governance that will qualify for the extra aid and assistance."

Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, said progress had been made at the summit. But he said: "There will still be many of the poorest and heavily indebted countries, which will have unsustainable levels of built-in debt for a long time."

Boris Johnson, the Conservative MP for Henley, highlighted President Mugabe's visit to a World Food summit in Rome. He said: "Is it not insulting to the 3,000 white farmers about to be expelled by the end of August and the 800,000 black farmers and employees also expelled by Mugabe's thugs to tell them we can do nothing more to help them when we cannot even enforce a travel ban?"