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Kate Osamor MP, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, speaking at the Labour Annual Conference in Liverpool, said:

Good morning, Conference.

I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome our leader Jeremy Corbyn.

It is an honour for this girl from Tottenham to stand here today as your Party’s Shadow Secretary for International Development.

You know, if you stand at the highest point in Tottenham you can see as far as Haringey Town Hall. On a really clear day you might just get a glimpse of Hackney. 

Thankfully, Labour’s international vision reaches far wider than what I could see growing up in North London.

And it was a world where I discovered that there were people like us – international socialists, people who shared a common belief, that together we can make the world a better place. 

That was a founding principle the creators of our Party instilled and that still resonates today.

That’s why I say to you today, without hesitation, the Labour Party, our Party, is the only truly internationalist party in British politics. 

It was the principles of the Labour Party and the trade union movement that did not stand idly by as the children of Soweto were massacred. It was our movement that stood alongside the ANC in the fight against apartheid.

And it was a Labour government putting into practice Labour values that delivered the aid and expertise in the aftermath of the devastating 2004 tsunami in South East Asia.

Today, the values of our Party stand in stark contrast to those of the present government. 

Marching along the corridors of her new Whitehall department, the new Secretary of State for International Development wants to break the humanitarian consensus held by successive governments – a consensus that’s helped millions of the most needy around the world for over two decades.  

Priti Patel, the new Development Secretary, has said she wants to bring Tory values to the UK’s aid programme. 

I know, it sounds like a bad pitch for a new Channel Five reality show.

I can see it now, UK aid being overseen by Philip Green as Ambassador for Ethical Commerce. Mike Ashley, Special Advisor for Equality and Workers’ Rights. 

The Tories have never been a fan of international aid. Priti Patel even said she wanted the Department abolished. Labour will never abolish DFID.

We will support it, expand it. 

We will help the people of the world who need our help. No ifs, no buts.

Labour is committed to 0.7 per cent of GDP being ring-fenced and exclusively spent on aid. Non-negotiable.

Labour has shown what it can do in government. The principles of aid for us are clear: helping people to live better lives. 

Take women’s economic power. It is essential for sustainable development and achieving the targets set out in the Millennium Development Goals, the goals that Labour signed up to.

Women make up more than 50 per cent of the world‘s population, but 70 per cent of the world’s poor are women. 

Women perform 66 per cent of the world‘s work, produce 50 per cent of the food, but earn 10 per cent of the income.  

There is no policy for development more effective than giving women power.

Two thirds of the world’s women can’t read or write. It was Gordon Brown who made the education of girls and young women a priority. 

Our aid budget should prioritise investing in education, giving every child the chance to shine. 

We should invest in health programmes, increasing the life expectancy of millions of the poorest.  Good health enables people to live productive lives. 

Our agenda is to champion equality, end aid dependency and support self-sufficiency. 

Labour’s vision is an International Development department that fights inequalities by expanding freedoms and opportunities, helping people develop their own business, contributing to their local economy.  Development leading to independent lives.

Aid is an investment in people that delivers real change. 

And let me be clear, unlike Priti Patel and the Tories, Labour will not turn the aid budget into a bargaining chip for human lives.  Labour values mean making a difference globally.  

Providing aid is only part of what Labour can and will offer. For all the money we can use to help people out of poverty, we also have a role to play in bringing justice. 

So a Labour government will be tough on corruption and tough on the receipts of corruption. 

Each year, billions of dollars are stolen from developing countries through tax evasion. It is larceny on a grand scale that undermines people’s futures and the chance for governments to invest. 

The Tories continue to pay lip service to this issue whilst doing very little to end it. We cannot call other countries “fantastically corrupt” when the proceeds of their corruption and tax-dodging end up in British tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, Jersey and Guernsey. 

I pledge to you that Labour will tackle international tax evasion that takes the money out of the pockets of the world’s poorest and puts it into the wallets of the world’s wealthiest.

Over the last three years the world has watched in horror at the nightly images of refugees fleeing wars. We are witnessing the largest mass exodus of people since the Second World War.  

I would like to pay particular tribute to two Labour colleagues who have done so much to hold the Tories to account. Lord Alf Dubbs is the son of Jewish refugees who fled the Nazis. He has worked tirelessly to hold the Government to account.

No, he has shamed the Government by exposing their woefully inadequate response to unaccompanied children.

Yvette Cooper has been a constant thorn in the side of Theresa May and the last Prime Minister. She has travelled to Calais numerous times and has been a brilliant ambassador for Labour values.

I thank them both.    

The solution to the refugee crisis lies in working with our partners across the world.

We have to address the problem of human trafficking, especially of children.

Tens of thousands of child refugees, whose parents have been killed in conflict, are being shuffled around camps in the Middle East and Europe. Their futures are on hold, their lives in limbo. 

We will abandon the double standards of the Tory approach that gives money to Yemen to build hospitals, while at the same time sells bombs to the Saudis who fire them at the hospitals that were built with UK aid.  

The Labour Party has a great record on backing development initiatives which promote freedom, fairness and equality.  

There are millions of people who have escaped poverty, helped by a radical reforming Labour government that invested in education and health. There is a global lesson here. 

Labour’s record on internationalism is unrivalled. 

I will fight to keep that reputation for you and this great party. 

Thank you.

ENDS