Robbie Williams and other celebs tell Chancellor to keep aid promises

Mo Farah, Robbie Williams, Ewan McGregor and Sienna Miller are among the stars appealing to the Chancellor to protect the overseas aid budget.

In a letter they and other celebrities urge George Osborne to commit 0.7% of national income to aid in the forthcoming Budget.

The call also comes ahead of the G8 summit on food and hunger in June, which will be chaired by the UK.

The celebrities are just some of the high profile figures backing the IF campaign launched ahead of the summit to end global hunger.

"The world is at a tipping point where we could abolish absolute poverty but hunger is threatening to reverse these achievements," they said.

"Food prices have been higher than ever in recent years, affecting people everywhere and climate change is making things worse.

"By matching the strength of spirit of the British people, we could be the generation that starts to end hunger.
"No budget decisions can be taken lightly, but investing in the long term will be cheaper for all of us. We simply can't afford hunger to rise to the emergency famine levels we saw in 2011."

The IF coalition of 150 organisations includes churches and Christian charities like Tearfund and Christian Aid.

Tearfund's Matthew Frost said: "British aid will help many of the one in eight people in the world who go to bed hungry each night, and it is our Christian duty to share what we have with those in need.

"Our prayer is that this Budget will also assist poor countries to help themselves by enabling them to collect taxes from companies refusing to pay their fair share.

"Trillions of pounds are hidden in tax havens while people in the UK are struggling to make ends meet and in poor countries two million children starve to death every year.

"Cracking down on tax dodging in this year's Budget would be a win-win - it will help poor people abroad but also those at home."