Author Archives: GovWorldMag

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to Damian Green’s comments on the Andrew Marr Show that the Tories £8bn NHS manifesto pledge involves reallocating existing budgets, said:

“Damian Green has let the cat out the bag. The Tories are offering no new money for the NHS at this election, but instead their offer involves reallocating existing budgets. In 2015 they said they’d give the NHS £10bn and it turned out to be untrue. They’re up to the same tricks again.

“As part of Labour’s fully costed manifesto, we are offering the NHS a cash boost of £8bn this year, including money for urgently needed capital works, and we’ve said how we will pay for it. Only Labour will give the NHS the funding it needs to deliver a truly modern, 21^st Century service for Britain’s patients. Under the Tories the NHS will continue to be underfunded and overstretched and it is patients who will pay the price.”

Labour will stand up for older people and has made five key pledges to ensure older people have the security and dignity they deserve:

1.      Secure pensioner incomes with the Triple-Lock on state pensions.

2.      Protect the Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes for pensioners.

3.      An extra £45 billion for the NHS and social care.

4.      No rise in the state pension age beyond 66.

5.      Justice for women born in the 1950s hit by five year rise in pension age.

Theresa May’s government has failed older people, their cuts to social care have resulted in over one million older people not getting the care they need. Labour will spend an extra £45 billion on the NHS and social care over five years.

The Conservative Party manifesto has promised three major new burdens to be placed on older people:

1.      Scrapping the ‘triple lock’ on state pensions so that pensioner incomes are no longer protected.

2.      Means testing Winter Fuel Payments to remove support to heat the homes of ten million pensioners  

3.      Forcing those who need social care to pay for it with their homes.

Pensioners would be at least £330 worse off under the Tories’ new Double Lock had it been in place between 2013/14 and 2017/18, compared with the basic state pension being uprated by the Triple Lock. Under Theresa May’s plan, ten million people – five out of six pensioners – are set to lose their Winter Fuel Payments, worth up to £300.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour party, said:

“Not satisfied with plunging our social care system into crisis, Theresa May’s nasty party has promised more attacks on older people:  scrapping the triple-lock on state pensions, removing the Winter Fuel Allowance and asset stripping the ill by forcing those who need social care to pay for it with their homes.

“Labour will protect the Winter Fuel Allowance and Triple-Lock on state pensions to deliver a secure and dignified retirement for all, and spend an extra £45 billion on the NHS and social care over five years, so that older people can get the care they deserve.

“Theresa May and the Conservatives won’t stand up for pensioners, their only concern is their billionaire friends. Labour is proud to stand up for the many, not the few.”