Green Party leaders respond to Tim Farron resignation

14 June 2017

Respondiong to the news that Tim Farron has resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats, the leaders of the Green Party said:

“We wish Tim the best of luck in his next challenge. Though we do not share all of the Liberal Democrat’s politics, we recognise the need for a powerful opposition to Theresa May and the DUP’s regressive alliance and will work with Tim’s successor where we find common ground to create a Britain that is open to all and a friend to Europe.”

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Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron resigns

This afternoon Tim Farron resigned as Liberal Democrat leader.

At party HQ in London he gave the following speech to party staff:

“This last two years have seen the Liberal Democrats recover since the devastation of the 2015 election.

That recovery was never inevitable but we have seen the doubling of our party membership, growth in council elections, our first parliamentary by-election win for more than a decade, and most recently our growth at the 2017 general election.

Most importantly the Liberal Democrats have established ourselves with a significant and distinctive role – passionate about Europe, free trade, strong well-funded public services underpinned by a growing market economy.

No one else occupies that space. Against all the odds, the Liberal Democrats matter again.

We can be proud of the progress we have made together, although there is much more we need to do.

From the very first day of my leadership, I have faced questions about my Christian faith. I’ve tried to answer with grace and patience. Sometimes my answers could have been wiser.

At the start of this election, I found myself under scrutiny again – asked about matters to do with my faith. I felt guilty that this focus was distracting attention from our campaign, obscuring our message.

Journalists have every right to ask what they see fit. The consequences of the focus on my faith is that I have found myself torn between living as a faithful Christian and serving as a political leader.

A better, wiser person than me may have been able to deal with this more successfully, to have remained faithful to Christ while leading a political party in the current environment.

To be a political leader – especially of a progressive, liberal party in 2017 – and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching, has felt impossible for me.

I’m a liberal to my finger tips, and that liberalism means that I am passionate about defending the rights and liberties of people who believe different things to me.

There are Christians in politics who take the view that they should impose the tenets of faith on society, but I have not taken that approach because I disagree with it – it’s not liberal and it is counterproductive when it comes to advancing the gospel.

Even so, I seem to be the subject of suspicion because of what I believe and who my faith is in.

In which case we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society.

That’s why I have chosen to step down as leader of the Liberal Democrats.”



Ending freedom of movement could result in ‘meltdown’ of health care, warns MEP

14 June 2017

Molly Scott Cato, Green MEP for the South West, has said Conservative and Labour plans to end free movement will leave the country struggling to fill places in the NHS and care sectors. Recent analysis by the GMB shows that the number of EU nationals working in health and social care has increased by 72% in the last eight years and there are now 209,000 EU nationals working in the sector – up from just 121,000 in 2009. 

EU nationals now make up more than five per cent of the entire health and social care workforce – including one in ten care home staff. The latest report comes hot on the heels of a leaked Department of Health study revealed that ending freedom of movement and clamping down on immigration would leave the NHS short of 40,000 nurses by 2026. A Freedom of Information request by Heart Radio further reveals the extent to which NHS Trusts in Devon and Cornwall are dependent on overseas nurses [1].

Molly Scott Cato said:

“The catalogue of evidence should be a wake-up call to the Tories and Labour who both want to end free movement. The GMB has called for an urgent post-Brexit plan for when free movement ends. But the surest way to guarantee our hospitals and care services are adequately staffed is to immediately grant rights for all EU nationals living in the UK to remain here, and to continue to allow freedom of movement. Greens are unequivocal on this – we will continue to defend free movement. 

“While we should acknowledge perceptions around immigration were key to influencing the outcome of the EU referendum last year, people did not vote to see their hospitals and care services go into meltdown over a staffing crisis. If we are to keep our health and social care services functioning properly we will continue to rely on people of all nationalities coming to work in the UK.

“Where there are problems associated with free movement in the EU – with some countries experiencing skills shortages due to the emigration of workers – these should be addressed collectively by all EU countries, working on solutions together. What is clear is that one country shutting the doors on everyone else is a self-defeating policy when it comes to addressing the differing needs of different countries in Europe.”

Notes:

1. FOI request by Heart Radio reveals (provided by Carrian Jones of Heart Radio: Carrian.Jones@heart.co.uk Further information on request)

Cornwall Partnership: 22 nurses from the EU, 6 non-EU

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust: 48 registered nurses and 30 healthcare support workers of non-British nationality. The Trust currently has nurse vacancies of 194.16 FTE (registered nurses) and 116.24 FTE (healthcare support workers).

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust: 116 nurses from overseas, 77 from EU countries

Other NHS Trusts did not respond or said they did not have such information.

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Sworn in as MP for Wokingham

Today I was sworn in as the newly elected MP for Wokingham. It was privilege. The solemn ceremony is designed to remind MPs of the seriousness of their job, and the role of Parliament is making government and authority accountable to the people.

I am most grateful to all those who voted for me. I wish to live up to their trust. I am also conscious that it is my duty to represent all the people of my constituency, however they voted. I will be taking up the issues which emerged strongly in the election, including money for schools and for social care.



If correct, this is potentially another stunning U-turn from a weak and wobbly Prime Minister – Rebecca Long-Bailey

Rebecca
Long-Bailey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy, responding to news that senior Conservatives are
urging a u-turn on their energy price cap manifesto promise, said:

“If
correct, this is potentially another stunning U-turn from a weak and wobbly
Prime Minister.

“One
in ten households are living in fuel poverty and customers are being
overcharged a whopping £2 billion every year. Theresa May unequivocally
guaranteed a price cap before the general election but now it appears she is
preparing to row back on that promise. It now looks like this price cap was
simply an election gimmick and that the Conservatives were never serious about
taking action to keep energy bills down.

“Britain
needs a serious and long term approach in order to bring energy costs down, not
cheap gimmicks that may simply be thrown into the bin just a week after the General
Election.”