State Papers

Bob Geldof warned Tony Blair that failing to support Africans at home would mean upheaval in West

Singer and campaigner wanted ‘Marshall Plan’ for Africa with ‘age-defining document’ to redefine relations

Bob Geldof in Africa in 1985. Photograph: Getty Images
Bob Geldof in Africa in 1985. Photograph: Getty Images
Shane Hickey
Tue Dec 31 2024 - 00:01

Bob Geldof warned the former British prime minister Tony Blair that failing to help Africans to make a living in their home countries would result in immigration and “massive social upheaval” in the West, according to newly released documents.

Cabinet papers released by the National Archives in London detail how the Live Aid founder urged Blair in 2003 to draw up a new report on how the world would develop in the coming years and the effect this would have on Africa.

During a phone call with Blair, Geldof said he wanted the report to lead to a new plan for Africa, similar to the Marshall Plan, the programme which set out to rebuild Europe after the second World War.

In a Downing Street memo from the call, it was reported that Geldof viewed African leadership as being “very weak”.

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“Geldof argued that, unless we found a way to allow Africans to make livelihoods at home they would come to our shores, resulting in massive social upheaval,” wrote David Hallam from the office of Blair’s private secretary.

Under the plans put forward by Geldof, the “Blair Report” would be a successor to the Brandt Report from 1980, which called for changes in how the international community approached development in the Third World.

Geldof wanted the report to be written by leading intellectuals from a variety of backgrounds. He said the gap between Africa and the rest of the world was widening and the UK’s presidency of the G8 group of nations, which coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid, would be the perfect time to have a “fresh look at the world”.

“The aim would be a serious, enduring work which would analyse the forces shaping the world, how they were affecting Africa, and why the gap was widening. This would probably lead to a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Africa,” wrote Hallam.

A week after the phone call, Geldof wrote to Blair to lobby the idea, saying they had limited time to complete the report and admitted that he was being “pushy”.

“The intent, I think, must be an age-defining document, leading to an understanding of how we intend to work for and with the poorest and most vulnerable,” Geldof wrote. “I do think this needs to be a direct commission from you personally – your vision, your authority, your weight.

“This can’t be a UK government document or – God help us – a G8 document. The report will however intellectually underpin that particular shindig. The ultimate outcome hopefully will be the implementation of a holistic, coherent, rather than piecemeal rescue plan for the beleaguered billion of Africa – that takes politics, but the thinking that sets the stage for it is beyond politics, and beyond bureaucracy. As you rightly said, Africa is not politics, it’s a passion.”

Civil servants were broadly in favour of the plan and saw it as an opportunity to build support for Africa ahead of the G8 summit in 2005. However, Blair was warned that it was a huge undertaking and the British government may not agree with all of the findings in it.

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At a meeting on the report in January 2004, Blair told Geldof that he would have to agree to the report’s conclusions if his name was to be associated with it. Civil servants had warned Blair that the Americans would take the report seriously only if there were names they could recognise associated with it.

It was announced the following month that Blair would set up the Commission for Africa, which was launched to tackle the problems facing the Continent.

In 2005 the 17-member commission issued a report which made a series of recommendations, including increases in international aid, debt write-offs and a call for donor countries to spend 0.7 per cent of their GNP on aid, among others.