|TOP|As the House of Commons began to debate the Company Law Reform Bill on Tuesday morning, demonstrators gathered outside the Parliament and cried out against tougher regulation to stop businesses exploiting workers, polluting the environment and causing serious harm to communities across the globe.

Thousands of Christian Aid supporters have written to their MPs and ministers, urging them to amend the Company Law Reform Bill so that UK companies are accountable for their actions overseas.

In Kenya, Christian Aid found that farmers growing tobacco for British American Tobacco suffer chronic ill-health because they are not giving the necessary training and protective gear, while in Nigeria's Niger Delta, the landscape is scarred by oil spills which pollute the communities' main sources of drinking water.

|AD|Christian Aid found that Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell's clean up operations were wholly inadequate, despite its stated commitment to corporate social responsibility.

Adrian Platt, from the Campaigns team at Christian Aid, said “MPs have been inundated with postcards and letters from Christian Aid supporters and others on this issue.

“The government has been catering to business lobby groups who want the law to be weak. We want the government to take a lead and make British companies world leaders when it comes to responsible business.”

The UK-based Christian organisation believes the law should be strengthened so that directors' duties include minimising negative social and environmental impacts on the communities in which they work.

"The proposed legislation is not tough enough. We need new a new set of mandatory standards to prevent abuses occurring.

“The government must be bolder in their approach and ensure that UK companies become a real force for good, rather than too often a cause for shame,” said Sharon McClenaghan, Christian Aid's trade policy officer.