THE three main political parties have agreed to spend one day in the lead-up to the election focusing on the relief of world poverty after lobbying from Richard Curtis, the screenwriter, and Bob Geldof, the Band Aid organiser, writes Ben Dowell.

Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats will devote Sunday, April 24, to outlining their plans to advance Third World development. They see the issue as a more important source of votes in this election than previously.

The April date, which has been designated World Poverty Day, is expected to have keynote speeches on international development from Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy.

The three all met Curtis, the writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral, in the past few weeks to discuss their aims.

“We want world poverty to become a priority for this election and we are pleased to get this unprecedented agreement,” said Curtis. “The parties broadly agree but it is important to turn that into hard policy successes.”

Last week, Curtis and Geldof launched an advertisement in which celebrities such as the actors Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz, clicked their fingers at three-second intervals. A child is estimated to die of poverty every three seconds.

The Make Poverty History campaign, which calls for Third World debt to be cancelled, for better aid programmes and for “trade justice”, is also assembling an “e-mail army” to lobby party leaders.

Activists have won cross-party consensus for Britain to spend 0.7% of its national income on foreign aid. The current figure is a little more than 0.3%.

Campaigners believe an election is the right time to force more concessions on a subject that has a strong emotional pull and is backed by celebrities.

Matt Phillips, head of public affairs at Save the Children, said: “Politicians are realising how much these issues matter to the population,” said Phillips. “And it is across the board, from traditional churchgoers to lefties.

“People talk about apathy but that can change when issues like this are addressed.”

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