Mrs Christine Russell (Chester, City of, Labour)

I am delighted to be called to make my maiden speech in this important debate. Over the past five hours, we have heard many moving and thought-provoking speeches, none more so than the excellent speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Ms King).

I care passionately about international development, and I know from my postbag that it is dear to the hearts and minds of my constituents. I am sad that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is not in the Chamber. If she had been, I would have reminded her of her excellent visit to University college, Chester, some three months ago, when she joined me in bidding farewell to a group of students who were going to work on aid projects, half of them in South America and the other half in Africa.

Chester is a truly international city. We welcome over 6 million visitors a year. I think that the second most photographed clock in the world is the Eastgate clock, which is second only to Big Ben, and which celebrates its centenary this year. Wherever one treads in Chester, one steps on 2,000 years of history. Roman walls encircle the city. It has unique mediaeval rows, splendid black and white Tudor buildings and fine Georgian squares. However, Chester is no fossilised museum piece: it is a living, vibrant city, which cherishes its past but looks forward with confidence to its third millennium.

It is customary in maiden speeches to pay tribute to one's predecessors, but because of the late hour I shall be brief. The first Members of Parliament were elected in 1661, and up to 1886 the city returned two Members. I have looked through the annals in the record office, and noted that the name Grosvenor dominates that period. That is the family name of one of my better-known constituents, the Duke of Westminster. The duke is at present out of action, indisposed, and I should like to send him my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Until 1 May, the people of Chester had only once returned a non-Conservative Member. He was the legendary Alfred Mond, who was one of the founders of ICI and represented the city as a Liberal Member from 1906 to 1910. Up to the election of my immediate predecessor, Gyles Brandreth, in 1992, the electorate of Chester had placed remarkable trust in their Members of Parliament, because the previous four had all been re-elected for five consecutive terms. However, two calendar months ago, the people of Chester democratically decided to write yet another chapter in the city's long history, by electing their first ever Labour Member, and their first woman Member.

As some hon. Members will know, Gyles Brandreth was a colourful Member of Parliament who tried hard to live down his woolly-jumper image. I am sure that he will be remembered in the history books for the Marriage Act 1994, which permitted couples to tie the knot in weird and wonderful locations, but he will also be remembered in Chester for his personal commitment to developing world issues. He was instrumental in establishing a world development group that encompassed the local branches of Oxfam, the United Nations Children's Fund, the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development, the UN Association, and many other organisations. Unfortunately, as we have heard today, his party in government did not show the same level of commitment to the overseas aid budget. During their tenure of office, the budget fell from 0.51 per cent. of GNP to a miserly 0.27 per cent.

Our new Government have made a superb start by putting international development at the heart of government. Not only here in Britain, but at the Denver summit and at the UN General Assembly special session on the environment and sustainable development, the Prime Minister has spelt out our determination to rescue the global environment for future generations.

I congratulate the Secretary of State and the Under-Secretary of State for International Development on achieving in eight weeks what the previous Government failed to achieve in 18 years—reaffirming our commitment to the UN target of 0.7 per cent. of GNP, refocusing the aid budget on assistance to the poorest people in the poorest countries, rejoining UNESCO, and redoubling Britain's commitment to eliminate global poverty and inequality.

Two years ago, I attended my daughter's graduation ceremony at Sussex university. There I listened to an impassioned plea by Charles Wheeler, the renowned BBC foreign correspondent, for the funding of places for overseas students. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Sussex university built a fine reputation for allocating 10 per cent. of its places to overseas students. I believe that more than half of Nelson Mandela's Cabinet were educated at the university, but, by 1994. Sussex, in common with other academic institutions, was struggling financially to support overseas students who were unable to meet the full costs of their tuition fees.

We all recognise, and many hon. Members have said, that improvements to health, education and sanitation are the keys to tackling poverty and its causes in developing countries, but grant aid alone is not enough. Developing countries need trained doctors, nurses, engineers, scientists—and, yes, politicians who are committed to democratic systems of government.

Our new Government have education as their number one priority, and have pledged to improve Britain's standing and influence in the wider world. What better way is there in which to marry those twin goals than again to encourage and support our colleges and universities to open their doors to students from developing countries, particularly those in Africa and the Indian sub-continent? Therefore, I hope that the Secretary of State and the Under-Secretary of State for International Development will take a fresh look at what educational opportunities Britain can offer to students from poorer countries.

On behalf of my constituents—there are many of them—who work tirelessly for the people of the world who live in abject poverty, may I say that we are absolutely delighted by the wind of change that has blown through the corridors of Whitehall in the past eight weeks. We look forward with eager anticipation to the autumn and the first White Paper on international development for 22 years.

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