PM 'turns blind eye' to real factors that create poverty

The British Prime Minister was chairing a meeting in Liberia on the UN's Millennium Development Goals today, when he said it was "important" to look at those factors that keep countries poor.

"Conflict, corruption, lack of justice, lack of the rule of law - these things matter, as well as money," Mr Cameron said.

But the Jubilee Debt Campaign's director Nick Dearden said the PM was ignoring the role of international debt in creating extreme poverty.

Mr Cameron was among those leaders who demanded austerity policies in return for loans, but they had been proven not to work.

"Clearly they don't because apart from anything else we're in an enormous debt crisis here in Europe.

"I think that whole way of looking at poverty has been overturned by looking at the debt crisis."

The Tax Justice Network's John Christensen said that cash from loans and aid often disappeared offshore into the world's tax havens, he said.

Liberia itself was one such country with "enormous" illicit outflows.

"So if Cameron really wants to help Liberia then perhaps the best steps he could take would be to crack down heavily on secrecy agreements and tax havens in his jurisdiction.

"The British Prime Minister is placed better than almost anyone else in the world to do that," he said.