With billions of people around the world living in poverty, we have an urgent moral and practical imperative to make our international development policy more effective.

Moral, because it is our responsibility to help those struggling with hunger, illiteracy and environmental instability.

Practical, because failed and impoverished states are incubators of disease, insecurity, and extremism, and so represent a clear threat to our national interest.

A Conservative Government will focus on improving three key areas of international development:

1) Aid

We are committed to achieving the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income as aid by 2013. Our top priority will be to ensure that every single pound of taxpayers’ money delivers the maximum impact – so we will establish an Independent Aid Watchdog to monitor the performance of the Department for International Development.

2) Trade

We will put maximum effort into achieving an ambitious, pro-development global trade deal, because trade will do more to eliminate poverty than anything else.

3) Conflict resolution

We will give much greater importance to conflict prevention and resolution – because a nation mired in conflict remains vulnerable until the fighting stops, no matter how much aid or trade it receives.

Immigration can be a real benefit to the UK, but only if it is properly controlled with its impact on the economy, public services and social cohesion taken into account.  

Our approach will ensure that we admit both the right people for our economy and also the right number of people. For economic migrants from outside the EU, we propose a two-stage process:

• The first stage is making eligible for admission those who will benefit the economy
• The second stage is an annual limit to control the numbers admitted with regard to the wider effects on society and the provision of public services

A Conservative Government would also apply transitional controls as a matter of course in the future for all new EU entrants.  

To enforce such controls, and to prevent illegal immigration and combat criminals who compromise our security, we need a new, integrated approach to managing our borders.

So we will introduce a dedicated Border Police Force to bring together all the agencies responsible for border control.

Unlike Labour’s Border Agency, which does not even include the police, our force will have the power to stop, search, detain and prosecute the terrorists, traffickers and illegal immigrants who currently slip through the net. Only then will we be able to start making Britain safer.

Liberal, because Britain must be open and engaged with the world, supporting human rights and championing the cause of democracy and the rule of law at every opportunity. But Conservative, because our policy must be hard-headed and practical, dealing with the world as it is and not as we wish it were.

We and our allies face our most serious challenges from persistent international terrorism, attempts by Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, and a newly aggressive Russia.

We must recognise that we are much stronger working through NATO, the UN, or the G8 than when acting alone, and that our moral authority is vital to our success.

Britain enjoys a unique position – it is the place where America, Europe and the Commonwealth meet. Our outlook and responsibilities have always been global, and for Britain to play a full role on the international stage we must:

• Restore cabinet government to our foreign policy decision-making and establish a national security council 
• Properly manage our relations with the United States while extending our alliances and trading relationships elsewhere 
• Champion reform of the EU and other multilateral or global institutions while simultaneously upholding our own highest values