Richard
Burgon MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, commenting on the Howard League for Penal Reform’s
response to a joint inspection report of Medway secure training centre, said:  

“This damning report is a sharp reminder
that the prisons crisis remains unchecked. 

“The new Justice Secretary must act quickly and
explain how he is going to fix prisons and secure training centres which are
violent and unsafe.  

“The public is less safe as a result of seven
years of Tory prison mismanagement.

“The next Labour Government will recruit 3,000
extra prison officers to improve safety and end the understaffing.”

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, responding to today’s inflation figures, said:

“Today’s further rise in inflation is deeply worrying, and once again shows how the Tories’ seven years of failed economic policy means working people are losing out, with wages lagging behind prices since the Tories came to power.
“Young people in particular, are suffering from a widening pay gap between the under and over-24s – increased by age distinctions in the Tories’ so-called National Living Wage.

“And after seven wasted years of Tory economic failure with real wages falling behind prices, and living standards being squeezed, working people in our country simply cannot afford more of the same from Theresa May and her party.

“Only a Labour government will ensure working people’s living standards are protected with a real Living Wage of £10 per hour, and immediate end to austerity spending cuts. At a time when the government is in total disarray, if they will not act then they need to stand aside and let a Labour government build an economy that works for the many, not the few.”

Shanghai police have apprehended 31 people in connection with 1,300 telecommunication fraud cases with total illegal gains of 4 million yuan (590,000 U.S. dollars).

The gang asked for “brokerage fees” for fake loans, Li Shidong, of the public security department in Shanghai’s Jinshan District, said Tuesday.

Police started investigating the case in late March, when a resident surnamed Chen told police he was asked to pay 4,500 yuan via the social networking app WeChat to obtain a loan.

After he made a 4,000 yuan down payment of the brokerage fee, the loan was rejected, with no money returned.

Police found more than 1,300 similar cases had been reported from November 2016 to April 2017, with victims across the country.

With the help of police in Shandong Province, the gang was arrested in late May in Liaocheng City, Shandong.

Twenty of the suspects will face fraud charges, said Li.

Police in central China’s Hubei Province have raided an Internet fraud gang and detained 808 members, making it the largest online financial fraud group uncovered in China.

The public security bureau in Wuhan, Hubei’s capital, said on Tuesday that the group used both telecommunication networks and illegal Internet finance websites to attract investors to its stock and futures schemes.

Its 800-plus members worked in office buildings pretending to be securities clerks.

In a coordinated operation, more than 1,000 police officers raided the gang’s 10 sites in Wuhan, seizing evidence of fraud, including 800 computers, 2,000 mobile phones and 3,000 bank cards.

The police investigation found that the gang started setting up a number of firms in 2015 and recruited professionals to provide securities analysis and consulting services on financial products including stocks, futures, precious metals and foreign exchange trading.

The exact amount of funds involved is unknown at this time as the investigation is still under way.