Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn Face Debt Campaigners in Kirkcaldy 22nd October

The Chancellor and Secretary of State for International Development addressed debt campaigners and local Labour party representatives at a meeting in Kirkcaldy. Gordon Brown's announcement earlier in September that Britain was to committ £100 million pounds per year to cancel the UK's share of debt owed to the World Bank and African Development Banks vindicated our recent Call For Change campaign.

Campaigners pressed them on the details of the latest proposal and questioned the Ministers on their plans for the Uk presidency of the G8 2005. Gordon Brown and Hilary Benn avoided difficult questions such as; the issues of conditions attached to this debt relief, money being diverted from the aid budget and the repercussions of cancelling 'odious' debts of some countries such as Iraq over others.