Owen Smith MP, Labour’s Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, criticising the failure of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to act on the Bombardier Tariff imposed by the US Department of Commerce, said:

“The Government has let these workers down again and again by not taking a hard enough line with Boeing and the US Government.  

“Staff and suppliers of Bombardier in Belfast are rightly concerned about this week’s announcement from the US Department of Commerce.

“The Government haven’t done anything on this issue when they should be doing all they can to see this decision reversed.”

Debbie Abrahams MP, Shadow Work and Pensions
Secretary, commenting on the Government defeat in a landmark
court case against “discriminatory” Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
legislation, said:

“This landmark ruling is a damning indictment of
the Government’s discriminatory approach to PIP support and its refusal to make
this support available to people with mental health conditions. So much for the
Prime Minister’s commitment to deliver parity of esteem for mental health.

“When the Government should have been listening to
successive court rulings on PIP payments and correcting injustices for people
with debilitating mental health conditions, they decided to undermine the legal
basis for the judgments and introduce emergency legislation. This was a step
too far, even for this Tory Government.

“Labour is committed to overturn the emergency
regulations and make PIP available to people with mental health conditions, as
well as scrapping the PIP assessments to develop a personalised, holistic
assessment process which provides each individual with support and a tailored
plan.”

Ends

Labour’s analysis of the latest weekly winter data (11 December to 17 December) released today by NHS England reveals that in the first month of winter:

• 46,993 patients have been stuck in the back of ambulances for over 30 minutes and 9,775 have had to wait longer than one hour. There has been an 86% rise in the number of delays for over one hour in just the past two weeks as the cold snap has hit.
• Average bed occupancy has risen at an alarming rate. Last week it averaged at 95%- a 0.7% increase since winter began. This is 10% higher than the recommended safe level of 85%.
• There have already been 105 diverts from A&E Departments.

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to Labour’s analysis of the first month of winter, said: 

“Patients should be under no illusions: there has been an appalling winter downturn across our NHS over the past month. 

“Despite the heroic efforts of our brilliant NHS staff, it’s unacceptable that so many patients have been stuck in the back of ambulances for such a long time. 

“With vacancies of 100,000 across the NHS, alongside the biggest financial squeeze in its history, patients are paying the price for Theresa May’s neglect of the NHS this winter.”

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on Public Sector Finance
figures published today by the ONS, said:

“These figures are further bad news just before Christmas following on from the
IMF’s gloomy outlook issued yesterday. They only remind us yet again of the
broken Tory promises to eliminate the deficit by 2015. The national debt
continues to grow despite the tricks the Chancellor attempted in his Budget
last month with Housing Association debt to hide his failure on the economy.
This continued failure by the Tory Government over these past seven years is
simply unacceptable.

“These
figures today reaffirm why we need an urgent change of course next year,
halting the growing emergency in our public services and ending the failed Tory
austerity cuts.

“The
next Labour government will set out a serious plan for the public finances with
strategic investment underpinned by our Fiscal Credibility Rule, to help build
a high-wage, high-skill economy for the many not the few.”

Ends

Barry
Gardiner MP, Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, commenting on
the revelation that the Department for International Trade has signed
agreements with the United States government which seek to block transparency
in UK-US trade talks, said:

“These
released letters show that Liam Fox’s promises to provide maximum transparency
are empty words devoid of any meaning.

“He
promises the country that a future trade deal with the US will not allow
reductions in our standards yet at the same time he promises the Americans that
documents pertaining to such a deal will be confidential, even where the
guidelines for the US-UK trade working group do not require such
confidentiality.

“What
is the Secretary of State trying to hide from the public?

“The
threat of deregulation in the context of a trade deal with the US is a very
real one as we saw with the chlorine-washed chicken scandal. Labour is calling for transparency and enhanced parliamentary scrutiny
of any future trade deals. Trade agreements are not just about tariffs and
barriers to trade, they are about the standards, rules and regulation that
determine what kind of society we live in.”

Ends

The
letters are available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/arrangement-for-exchanging-information-during-the-uk-us-trade-and-investment-working-group