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PM hails newspaper's 'impressive' £1m milestone

A campaign by the London Evening Standard to raise £1m to fight poverty in the capital has hit its target in less than four weeks, earning plaudits from PM David Cameron.

The newspaper launched the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund last month to tackle inequalities in the city.

Now it has passed the £1m mark already, raising £1.18m in just 18 working days thanks to the generosity of Londoners, and has won praise from Mr Cameron, along with other politicians and business leaders.

The money raised will now be matched by the government and will be distributed by the Community Foundation Network to hundreds of charities working to help those in poverty.

Mr Cameron said: “This is such an impressive milestone. Once again I would like to congratulate the Evening Standard on this tremendous achievement.

“It is great news that this money will be going straight to charities that do so much to tackle poverty.”

On Friday, the newspaper thanked all those who had donated to the cause and called for further money to keep pouring in.

Editor Geordie Greig said: “London is not only the greatest capital city in the world, it has now proved it is also the most generous.

“This is a record amount of money raised in record time by a newspaper campaigning for charity. Only appeals for war-wounded and natural disaster victims have had a greater result.

“Poverty is a blight on too many lives in our city and it is wonderful that Londoners from every background and degree of wealth have given and continue to give to the Evening Standard’s Dispossessed Fund.”

The newspaper launched the fundraising drive after a series of articles highlighting poverty in the capital, saying almost half of children in London live below the poverty line.

Charities can now bid for grants of between £500 and £5,000 and the Community Foundation Network will work with a Standard advisory board to distribute cash in five areas – education, unemployment, health, gangs, guns and knife crime and other issues such as homelessness and pensioner hardship.