Campaigners call for 'Robin Hood tax' to cut child poverty

The coalition wants the leaders of the UK’s political parties to support a global tax on transactions between financial institutions to protect public services, fight poverty, help foot the bill for climate change and repair the damage caused by the recession.

Campaigners say that an international transaction tax system could raise as much as £250bn every year, which could be used to meet the government’s target of halving child poverty and protect schools and hospitals from the threat of cuts, among other things.

Ads will appear in the City, the press and across the web, and a TV ad starring Bill Nighy will also promote the campaign.

A YouGov survey carried out for Oxfam, another organisation backing the campaign, found that there are twice as many people in favour of the policy as there are those that oppose it.

Barnardo’s UK director of policy and research Julian Walker said: "The Robin Hood tax allows us to harness the enormous power held within the City and within our valuable financial trading system to tackle the outrage of poverty and inequality within our society, which continues to blight the lives of far too many innocent children. We cannot and should not miss this once in a lifetime opportunity."

www.robinhoodtax.org.uk