This is something that the Conservative Government has supported, and I’m glad we agree on that issue. I wish all the parties in this Senedd agreed.

Our manifesto yesterday said that we pledge to develop a targeted development agenda, based on the principles of redistribution, social justice, women’s rights and poverty reduction. And, in fact, the last Labour Government in the UK did earn Britain recognition as a world leader in the field of international development by setting up the dedicated Department for International Development. I think it’s very important to say that that international development department is scrutinised very carefully. It is scrutinised by the International Development Committee in the House of Commons, it’s scrutinised by the National Audit Office and it is scrutinised by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact. It is heavily scrutinised. The doubts and queries that come up about international aid are whipped up by the right-wing press, which has been referred to today, and I think we don’t need to take our thinking on this subject from papers like the ‘Daily Mail’ and ‘The Mail on Sunday’, who would be only too happy for us to spend 100 per cent of our money on ourselves and not thinking in any way about the fact that we are global citizens and we live in a global world.

I believe that everyone in every country has a right to clean water, enough food, basic healthcare and an education, and we have a commitment to ensure these human rights should become a reality for the world’s poor and the victims of tyranny and conflict. And of course, it is in our interest to promote this too, because where there’s poverty and lack of education, there’s much more likely to be political instability, conflict and forced migration. You’ve only got to look at what’s happened in the European migrant crisis to see this. No-one leaves their country if it’s a stable place to live in with enough food, with healthcare provision and a chance for an education, so it is in our interests to ensure that we make the world as stable a place as we can, and I believe that aid plays a major role in doing that. Think about what we’ve achieved. The UK is committed to global polio eradication and is the third largest donor to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. There are now only three countries in the world where polio is endemic: Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is largely due to the aid that we have given.

During my time in Westminster, I was fortunate to visit a project in Africa that had benefitted from international aid from DFID, the international development department, in particular looking at the joint treatment of TB and HIV in Kenya, Rwanda and Malawi. Having seen first hand, as I know others in this Chamber have, the degree of poverty that was experienced by people in those countries, in particular the women and children, it absolutely reinforces my commitment that Wales and the UK should be an outward-looking country where we recognise our international obligations and operate in a generous spirit. I am distressed that there is a party within this Assembly that does not support an outward-looking—who are not generous in their thoughts and think that we must do all we can as united together to try to improve things for the people of the world. Because as far as I’m concerned, and I think most of us in this Chamber are concerned, the children in the world—the children internationally are all our children.