SYLVIA Heal MP is urging people across Halesowen and Rowley Regis to go online and back a new campaign to turn a promise to tackle global poverty into a law.

The www.globalpovertypromise.com website is part of a campaign to put the Government’s promise to raise international development aid to 0.7 per cent of national income by 2013 into legislation.

Sylvia Heal MP said: “People across Halesowen and Rowley Regis are proud of what we’ve achieved and the help we’ve given to people living lives of poverty in developing countries.

"We’ve campaigned to Make Poverty History and kept our promises through this global recession. I am urging people to go online and join me in backing ‘globalpovertypromise.com’.”

Douglas Alexander, Labour’s International Development Secretary, said: “Sylvia Heal has been a passionate campaigner on global poverty and a long standing advocate of action to help people in the developing world.

“The proportion of the world’s population living in poverty has fallen from a third to a quarter thanks to a combination of both aid and trade."