Caroline Lucas "delighted" at leading development group's praise over development policy.

The World Development Movement has rated the Green Party top in its analysis of the parties' policies on international development.

The Greens, who score an impressive 8 out of 10, come out with the highest scores on issues such as trade justice, international aid and IMF reform, ahead of the Liberal Democrats (6), Labour (5) and the poorly scoring Conservatives, at a paltry 3.

The Greens scored more than the other parties on every issue of concern to the WDM except the question of wealthy nations owing poor countries debt for climate damage - and the comment was that we had not included enough detail on how we would introduce such debt payments.

To tackle world poverty, the Green Party has said the UK should:

* Introduce a "Robin Hood" tax which would generate as much as £250bn by taxing bankers transactions by as little as 0.05%. This money would be used to tackle global poverty, as well as tackling climate change and investing in public services.

* Increase aid by exceeding the UN's target and allocating at least 1 per cent of UK Gross National Product for aid by 2011, adding an extra £4.5bn pa. This aid should be targeted for the poorest, should be linked to economic policy conditions, should respect gender equality and not be diverted to equipping security forces.

* Keep the International Aid Department separate from the Foreign Office, so as to separate foreign policy interests from humanitarian assistance.

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, herself a former policy advisor for a leading development organsiation, commented today: "I am delighted to see that Green Party policies are considered better than those of the other parties.

"We think our policies would radically improve the lives of the poorest. When it comes to international aid, we would exceed the UN target. The "Robin Hood" tax, which officially became Green Party policy at our spring conference in February, would provide billions of pounds to tackle global poverty, whilst taking a minute percentage of large financial transactions.

"We are on the brink of getting our first MPs into Westminster, which would mean an independent voice in parliament talking about these vital issues, and holding the Government to account."

Julian Oram, the World Development Movement's head of policy commented: "Anti-poverty campaigners have been shocked by the Conservative Party's admission that part of the aid budget under a Tory government could be used for British military operations in developing countries.

"And Labour's promise to help countries cope with climate change would also come out of the aid budget, diverting finance away from health and education, rather than being additional to that much needed aid.

"The take-home message to the three main party leaders is: must do better if you genuinely want to tackle the root causes of global poverty."



More information please see: http://www.wdm.org.uk/news/tories-and-labour-criticised-over-development....

More about the Robin Hood tax please see: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/.

For general information please contact the Brighton and Hove Green Party Office on 01273 766 670.