Gordon Brown attends local constituency event

Praises Ann Keen as a "constant campaigner for social justice"

Gordon Brown has visited the Brentford and Isleworth constituency to attend an event to mark World Poverty Day.

The meeting which took place on Sunday 24th April was arranged by Ann Keen, the Labour candidate in the forthcoming general election, and St John the Baptist’s Church in Isleworth,

Gordon Brown made an impassioned call to local residents and campaigners to redouble their support and efforts to redress the wrongs of global poverty. He offered a stark analysis of global poverty and a bleak account of current progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. At present rates people in sub Saharan Africa will have to wait 115 years for primary education for all, 150 years for eliminating avoidable infant deaths, 135 years to halve poverty.

He praised the work of Ann Keen and her efforts locally to campaign for social justice saying, "I am grateful to Ann Keen – a constant campaigner for social justice for bringing me here today on world poverty day to emphasise the importance of our global responsibilities.”

Ann Keen thanked St. John's Church and Reverend Myles for hosting the event and welcoming Gordon Brown and said,“ The statistics are shocking and we have a real opportunity to make a difference in the run up to the G8 summit in Scotland. Decisions will be made at that meeting that will affect world poverty for years to come. It is brilliant to see so many local campaigners and schools here today. “

Gordon Brown said nothing had prepared him for seeing first hand the ‘grinding relentless, unyielding poverty’ that destroys lives and hopes of Africans and how that had made him see the tasks ahead with a ‘new urgency.’ He spoke of his personal encounters with Tanzanian children ‘begging to continue in school – but denied the chance because their parents could not pay the fees’ and of Aids sufferers who cannot afford the bus fare to get to a clinic, let alone the doctor’s fee or medicine. Again he asked how we can we ask them to wait.

Finally, he gave room for optimism. He pointed to policies that work and what can be done. ‘With debt relief in Uganda 4 million more children now go to primary school. ‘ He gave examples of how Labour’s international initiatives on finance and malaria and AIDS/HIV vaccines could save five million children’s lives by 2015. He pointed out that in doubters thought the ‘Marshall Plan unattainable’ and in 1997 ‘ thought debt relief an impossible hope’ but is now being implemented. He appealed for people bound by a ‘moral sense’ of their common humanity to make ‘a world free from global poverty’ their legacy.

April 27, 2005