British Conservatives announce plan to set up new fund for poverty reduction

BIRMINGHAM, Britain, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Britain's major opposition, the Conservative party, announced here Wednesday it will set up a fund to fight poverty if it wins the next general election. Andrew Mitchell, shadow secretary for International Development, said in his speech on the last day of the party's national conference that 40million pounds (72 million U.S. dollars) will be earmarked for the new fund so as to support the country's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charities to fight poverty. "Rather than relying on a top-down approach to development, we will invite NGOs and charities to take the lead (in poverty reduction across the world)," he said. Mitchell also noted that a Conservative government will offer no aid to China given the fact that China has become a donor in its own right. Nonetheless, the shadow secretary noted the party "will work closely with China as a partner, but not patronize a country which over the last few years has lifted hundreds of millions of its citizens out of poverty." Some 15,000 people have gathered here in Britain's second largest city for the Conservatives' four-day annual party conference, which is widely deemed as a platform to showcase substantial policies to prepare them for winning the next general election. The Conservative party has been garnering an average 40 plus percent of voters' support in the last few months, leading the ruling Labour party by more than 10 percentage points. It is also expected the party could win more support with its proposed plans to revive the country's ailing economy which has entered a grim downturn.