Tag Archives: Labour

Labour’s Campaign Coordinators Andrew Gwynne and Ian Lavery will today unveil a campaign poster highlighting how Britain has been held back by the Conservatives.  

Ian Lavery will say:

“Millions of people feel they are living in a country where they are held back from fulfilling their potential.

“They don’t feel secure in their jobs and they can’t remember the last time they had a pay rise. Their children are struggling to learn in crowded classrooms, and their hearts sink when they see what it costs to rent or buy a home.

“Many who have saved and planned for their retirement find they have to work longer because the state pension age is running away from them.

“The Tories have given tax breaks to the richest and big business, while failing to invest in services, skills, infrastructure and the new industries of the future.

“If the Tories are re-elected, things will only get worse. You can’t trust the Tories with your future or with the NHS, your child’s future or your pension.

“The Conservatives have held back Britain for too long. Labour will build a fairer Britain for the many not the few. We can do it together. Don’t let them hold you back.”

Angela Rayner, Shadow Education Secretary, launching Labour’s plans for a cradle to grave National Education Service at Leeds City Further Education College today, said:

To the people of this country I say this – you have a clear choice on 8 June.

A choice between a Conservative Government that has let you and your children down.

Or a Labour Government that will stand up for you and provide a better education and life chances for all.

The Conservatives said they would look after our children.

But instead they’ve cut funding for our state schools, abolished the Education Maintenance Allowance and tripled Tuition Fees.

Over the past seven years, the Tories have been dismantling the incredible legacy of the last Labour Government.

As it has across the economy.

This Conservative Government has held you back.

If you’re a teacher living the reality of falling investment and rising class sizes.
You’re being held back.

If you’re a parent – like I am – and your children aren’t getting the education they deserve because class sizes are too high.

Then our children are being held back.

It’s truly frightening that school budgets are being cut for the first time in over twenty years.

We’re going to see a generation of our children being held back.

It never used to be like this under Labour.

Harold Wilson spoke of a new Britain forged in the white heat of the technological revolution, and Tony Blair spoke of the need to build an education system fit for a new millennium.

This is how Labour always equipped Britain to rise to new challenges; the history of Labour in power is of us giving power to people.

To fulfil their potential, to have the economic security to start a family and get on in life, and to pass on to their children more than they were given.

And education has always been at the heart of how we have delivered this.

But in the past seven years, as the Tories drag us further away from the legacy of the last Labour Government, more and more people are being held back.

Held back by an education system that, under the Conservatives, isn’t giving them the support they need.

The over 800,000 young people not in education, employment, or training, who aren’t able to get the skills they need to get a good job, are being held back by a Government that is not supporting them.

The nine million adults who have poor literacy, poor numeracy, or both, too often trapped in low-wage, low-skill work, struggling to make ends meet as wages stagnate and living costs rise, are being held back by a Government not giving them the support they need.

I know how it feels to be held back, because, for a long time, I was too.

If you grow up in poverty and on a run-down estate, it doesn’t take much for you to feel held back.

You feel like you’ll never have the same opportunities as your better off mates, for even the most basic things; you feel like education isn’t for you.

You leave school without qualifications; you become a NEET, just another statistic on Philip Hammond’s spreadsheet.

Of course, in my case, I left school pregnant too, and at that point, you forget about feeling held back, and you start to worry about the most basic things.

How to make ends meet and provide for a child, how to try and give them even a little more than you had.

You do the best you can, but it can be so easy, through no fault of your own, to end up in your early adult life trapped in a cycle of deprivation, unable to get the decent wage you need to break out of it.

Slowly watching your dreams of becoming a nurse, a teacher or a scientist slip away as fantasies created by a young naive child.

But education can offer a lifeline that is simply transformative. And it shouldn’t stop at a particular age in life.

Like many people, including some of my colleagues, I went back to education as an adult, to get the skills and qualifications I missed the first time.

I did that thanks to a Labour Government introducing free childcare through Sure Start and free adult leaner courses at my local college.

It is difficult to say how much this changed my life, but I think I can safely say that if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be standing here today. I left school thinking I was thick and feeling like a failure.

For too many, the transformative power of education is lost, from schools not getting the funding they need, to the debts you need to take on to return to education as an adult.

I fear that the opportunities that were there for me are not there for those who need them now.

But things can be different.

We can build a fairer, richer Britain, where opportunity and prosperity can be shared by all. That provides business with a skilled and ready British workforce.

And that is why I am proud today to announce the first stages of Labour’s National Education Service.

First, we will secure the best education possible for every child, by getting the basics right, and that starts with proper funding for our schools.

We will reverse the £3 billion of cuts that our schools would face by 2020, and protect per pupil funding over the course of the Parliament.

And unlike the Tories, when we say real terms, we mean real terms.

No child will be held back by being in a school that doesn’t have the staff it needs, or can’t offer the curriculum our children need.

Under Labour, every child, whatever their background, will be given the opportunity to unlock their full potential.

We will give further and technical education the parity of esteem that it deserves, not just with warm words, but with bold action.

We will give further education for 16 to 19 year olds the funding it needs, reversing seven years of managed decline under the Conservatives.

NEETs will no longer be held back, but will instead be given the support they need to go into further education, to be able to acquire the qualifications they need to get on in life.

It’s vital we have lifelong learning. Learning is a ticket not just out of poverty but also out of isolation and loneliness that many of us will face at some point in our lives.

30 per cent of jobs will be affected by the rise of automation.

Up to nine million more people who will see their industries decline and their livelihoods disappear.

And if anyone thinks the Conservatives are up to the challenges that these changes to our economy will bring, I would remind them to look at what has happened in post-industrial towns across our country.

All the Conservatives did in power under Margaret Thatcher and John Major was to manage the decline of industries and left nothing but low-paid, low-skill work in its place.

Ghost towns with the heart ripped out of our communities, left to rot with little opportunities.

Theresa May is continuing Margaret Thatcher’s legacy.

But there’s nothing strong or stable in creating an economy that holds people back, puts a cap on their ambition and leaves them in job insecurity.

Only Labour has the vision to deliver a fairer Britain, where opportunities are available to all and prosperity is shared.

The National Education Service has been developed by the thousands of people, teachers and organisations who have spoken to me over the last 12 months either by email or in person on my many visits up and down the UK and of course in my own constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne.

The Labour Party has listened. You are at the heart of Labour’s National Education Service, offering opportunity for all, to ensure that nobody – be they child or adult or community – is held back.

This will help everyone who wants to use education, to enrich their own life and their career, moving into jobs with better wages and more security.

Education is a central pillar to Labour’s plan to upgrade Britain’s economy.

Because all of our businesses will benefit from Labour’s plans too, as they thrive in a richer Britain.

Productivity in Britain remains stubbornly low compared to our competitors. The average German worker can make everything a British one does in a week, and take Fridays off.

It is no surprise that countries with high-quality technical education have more productive economies.

Which is why Labour will upgrade Britain’s economy by ending the historic neglect of further education, giving teachers and facilities the investment they need to lead the world.

I will make sure our education system is fit for the 21st century by introducing free, life-long education in further education colleges.

Labour will abolish adult learner loans, and make all adult education free at the point of use, for all those who need it.

So adults who don’t have the basic skills they need to move on and move up in life will no longer be held back by the fear of loans.

They will instead be able to return to education whenever they need it.

It will enable everyone to upskill or retrain at any point in their life.

It will correct the historic neglect of the further education sector by investing in teachers and in facilities.

And Labour will set a target for all further education teaching staff to have a teaching qualification within five years and we will back this up with financial support.

And we will increase capital investment to equip colleges to deliver T-levels and an official pre-apprenticeship trainee programme.

Beyond lifelong learning, we will transform the provision of apprenticeships.

There must be a focus on quality and not quantity.

Frankly, the number of apprenticeships does not matter if they’re more about poor wages than getting a foot on the career ladder.

Currently half of all apprenticeships are below NVQ level 2 and this is simply not good enough.

So a Labour Government will shift the emphasis from quantity to quality by doubling the number of completed Level-3 apprenticeships before the end of the next Parliament.

It is only by transforming our education system that we can upgrade our economy so that nobody and no community is left behind.

And while the Tories have seen the benefits of economic growth go to a small number of the very wealthy, concentrated in the South-East, Labour will share prosperity across the country.

We will ring-fence £440 million from the apprenticeship levy to give small and medium sized companies the support they need to recruit and train highly skilled staff.

And encourage joined up thinking between local government, schools, the FE sector, and businesses, so that everyone, young and old, can leave education with a valued qualification and the skills they need to get a decent job in their local community.

And we recognise that 75 per cent of apprenticeships are delivered by independent providers and we appreciate their contribution to the sector.

And, yes, we are going to ask businesses to pay a little more in tax to fund it all.

But this is because they have their important part to play in a new deal for Britain, transforming our economy.

Quite simply, we are asking good businesses to do what they always do, to make long term investments that will yield a significant economic return.

And the Labour Party and Britain’s businesses both know that as we face our exit from the European Union, upskilling our workforce to tackle the challenges we face in the years to come has never been more important.

Labour’s National Education Service will give everyone in Britain, whatever their age and background, the opportunities they need to use education to transform their lives, just as it did for me.

And the businesses that help us fund it will get a highly skilled workforce, more productive, and better able to adapt to the challenges to come.

This will give them the certainty and security they need to continue to create jobs and wealth across Britain.

There can be no doubt that we face great challenges in the years to come, from Brexit, to the rise of automation, to the decline of industries that will be replaced in our economy by new, high-tech and green industries.

It takes a united approach, of individuals, of government at all levels, and of business, to respond to them, to ensure that we can deliver opportunity, security, and prosperity for all.

By offering everyone a properly funded school, a high quality technical education, and support for lifelong learning that will allow everyone to reskill, retrain, and return to education as they need to.

Quite simply, we will rise to the challenge that was laid down twenty years ago, to deliver an education service fit for a new millennium.

To deliver richer lives for our people and a richer Britain for us all.

A National Education Service delivering hope and prosperity.

For the many not the few.

Ends

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, will today outline Labour’s transformational plan to invest in a National Education Service to ensure no one is held back and create a more skilled workforce and productive economy.

Labour’s plan to increase schools funding and introduce free, lifelong education in colleges is at the heart of its commitment to create a society run for the many not the few.

Jeremy will be joined by Angela Rayner, Shadow Education Secretary, and Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary, at a college in Leeds on Wednesday to announce the details of the plan.

Labour’s key pledges are:

• Stop the cuts to school budgets with a real terms increase in funding

• Reduce class sizes to under 30 for all five, six and seven year olds

• Free school meals for all primary school children

• Restore education maintenance allowance for college students

• Restore student grants for university students

• Scrap fees on courses for adult learners looking to re-train or upskill

The plans will be funded from the £19.4 billion that will be raised by reversing the Conservative Party’s cuts to corporation tax. Labour has previously announced extending free school meals to all primary age children will be funded by levying VAT on private school fees.

Jeremy Corbyn said:

“People of all ages are being held back by a lack of funding for education, and this in turn is holding back the economy by depriving industry of the untapped talent of thousands of people.

“The Conservatives have spent seven years starving schools of funding, meaning headteachers are having to send begging letters to parents to ask for money. They have also cut support for students and forced colleges to increase fees. It’s created a downward spiral that is bad for the people being held back and bad for the economy.  

“Labour will do things differently. Our new National Education Service will transform our schools and education system to ensure a future for the many not the few. We will reverse the Conservatives’ tax giveaways to big business and put money back where it belongs, in our schools, our colleges and our communities.”

Angela Rayner said:

“Our plans for a new National Education Service show there is a clear choice at this election. Between the Tories who have broken their promises to parents and children, or a Labour party with a real plan for education for the many not the few.

“We will invest in schools and in our young people, ensuring no primary pupils go hungry during the day, reducing class sizes so children can learn and teachers can teach, and restoring the maintenance allowance and grants for students in both further and higher education.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

• Stop the cuts to school budgets with a real terms increase in funding

• Labour will ensure all schools have the funding they need, including £4.8 billion per year for English schools by 2021-22, as part of £5.66 billion additional annual funding across the UK by the end of the parliament.
• We estimate that preventing any losses under the proposed national funding formula in every year after the first will cost around £335 million.

• Reduce class sizes to under 30 for all five, six and seven year olds

• £8.4 billion capital investment to ensure schools have the number of places they need and £13.8 billion to ensure that school buildings are up to standard.

• Free school meals for all primary school children

• House of Commons Library research says extending free school meals for all primary children would cost £700-£900 million, paid for by VAT on private schools.

• Restore education maintenance allowance for college students

• Assuming the same proportion of 16-18 year olds qualify for EMA as previously the cost would be £582 million a year.

• Restore student grants for university students

• Total spend on maintenance grants in 2015/16 was £1.57 billion. If this is uprated in line with CPI inflation then the cost next year is £1.63 billion, rising to £1.73 billion by the end of the parliament.

• Scrap fees on courses for adult learners looking to re-train or upskill

• Increase the adult skills budget by £1.5 billion by the end of the parliament in order to abolish upfront fees and increase course funding by an average of 10 per cent year on year.

Corporation tax

• From next tax year, the headline rate of corporation tax will rise from its current 19 per cent to 21 per cent in 2018-19, 24 per cent in 2019-20 and 26 per cent in 2020-21. This will still leave it at the lowest rate in the G7. The small profits rate, payable by firms with profits below £300,000, will rise less sharply to 20 per cent in 2018-19 and 21 per cent in 2020-21

• According to Treasury and Office for Budget Responsibility figures, the Tories’ tax giveaways are costing the exchequer £65.2 billion over the four years from 2018-19 to 2021-22, including £19.4 billion in the last year of the parliament. This contrasts with £46.8 billion based on the forecasts when the cuts were introduced.

John McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on Theresa May’s refusal to rule out a rise in National Insurance Contributions, said:

“Theresa May has once again failed to rule out more National Insurance Contribution increases. There is already a £2 billion black hole in the Budget from when the Tories tried to sneak through a hike in NICs only a month ago, and it is becoming clear they are looking to try to go ahead with this tax hike if they’re re-elected next month.

“The Tories still won’t rule out further tax rises on those with low and middle incomes and are a threat to working people.

“Labour’s personal tax guarantee rules out rises in National Insurance Contributions, VAT and income taxes for the 95 per cent. Labour is now the party of low taxes for the many and not the few.” 

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, speaking at the party’s campaign launch in Manchester, will say:

***Check against delivery***

It’s great to be launching our campaign in Greater Manchester where you showed the way for the rest of the country by electing a Labour mayor, Andy Burnham.

Andy will be a great mayor – but just think how much more he will be able to achieve if he is working with a Labour Government committed to the many not the few.

We have four weeks. Four weeks to take our message to voters to convince them Britain can be better. It can be transformed. It doesn’t have to be like this.

We can transform Britain into a country that – instead of being run for the rich – is a one where everyone can lead richer lives.

And I mean richer in every sense.

Richer because all of us have potential to fulfil, family to support, interests to pursue, richer when that potential is not held back.

Because there is no doubt; Britain is being held back.

If your children aren’t getting the education they deserve because class sizes are too high.

Then your children are being held back.

If you’re a young couple, or anyone trying to get a home and can’t make a home because rent and house prices are too high.

Then you’re being held back.

And if you’ve worked hard all your life, but can’t pursue your dreams in retirement because you’re supporting your family well into adulthood.

Then you too are being held back.

But Britain is a rich country – the sixth richest in the world.

We caught a glimpse of that wealth only two days ago when Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times published its Rich List.

In the last year, Britain’s 1,000 richest people have seen their wealth rise by 14 per cent to £658 billion – that’s nearly six times the budget of our NHS.

Imagine the outcry if public sector workers put in for a 14 per cent pay rise.

But it’s no surprise that the richest have got even richer after the tens of billions the Tories have handed them in tax cuts.

That’s what we mean when we say the system is rigged for the rich.

So thanks for making that clear, Mr Murdoch – though I imagine it’s the only help you will give us in this campaign.

In fact, we expect hostility. Our challenge to a rigged system is bound to meet hostility.

Change always involves taking on vested interests.

And there is a real danger that the Tories’ fearmongering and spin machine will make some people settle for less than they should. Resign themselves to things the way they are – underestimating just how many more burdens the Tories could impose if their mission to rig the system for the rich isn’t halted.

The stakes are high. We know from last week’s local elections how big the challenge is.

We have to convince the sceptical and undecided. They are not sure which way to turn.

And who can blame them?

People are alienated from politics and politicians.

Our Westminster system is broken and our economy is rigged. Both are run in the interests of the few.

Labour is under attack because we are standing up to the elites who are determined to hijack Brexit to pay even less tax and take even more of the wealth we all create.

Labour is under attack because we are standing up to the corporate interests plundering our NHS. How much more will be privatised if the Tories get another five years?

We’re drawing a line. Three decades of privatisation – from energy and rail to health and social care – has made some people very rich but it has not delivered richer lives for the majority.

In the coming days, we will be setting out our plan to transform Britain – with an upgraded economy run for the many not the few.

Theresa May thinks she can dodge the Tory record by claiming she wants to build a fairer Britain, that she cares about working people.

But does she think people will forget how the Tories have actually treated working people?  

It was this Tory leader who sat alongside David Cameron in government for six years.

She was with him when they introduced the bedroom tax.

What’s remotely fair about the bedroom tax? What was fair about racking up tuition fees? Or about taking benefits away from people with disabilities?

Or about closing Sure Start Centres. Or starving schools of cash. Or opening up the NHS to be feasted on by profiteers.

In case their talk of fairness doesn’t wash, they have another card to play. That this election is all about Brexit and who can play at being toughest with Brussels.

Labour will not allow the Tories to put their party interests ahead of the real national interest; the interests of the British people.

This election isn’t about Brexit itself. That issue has been settled. The question now is what sort of Brexit do we want – and what sort of country do we want Britain to be after Brexit?

Labour wants a jobs-first Brexit. A Brexit that safeguards the future of Britain’s vital industries, a Brexit that paves the way to a genuinely fairer society, protecting human rights, and an upgraded economy.

Labour’s plan to transform Britain will mean:

A big deal to upgrade the economy: new infrastructure to support the industries of the future. And an investment in training and skills to equip our workforce to compete globally.

It means rebuilding our NHS and social care services with the funding they need.

It means building a million homes to rent and buy.

And it means tackling the scandal of air pollution which contributes to 40,000 deaths per year.

We won’t be paying lip-service to working people.

We will introduce a comprehensive programme to strengthen rights at work, make sure new jobs are good jobs, and end the race to the bottom in pay, conditions and job security.

Low pay and insecurity have spread like an epidemic under the Tories.

Labour will invest in skills and jobs, and take action to enforce a floor under employment standards across the board – so that all jobs are decent jobs, so that all workers – the true wealth creators – can play their part in transforming Britain and benefit fully from it.

That’s why we are fighting to win this election.

So we can transform Britain for the many not the few.

When we win, the British people win. The nurse, the teacher, the small trader, the carer, the builder, the office worker win.

Labour is offering a real choice, a real alternative to the rigged system holding us back and to the Conservatives who are running our country down.

The economy is still rigged in favour of the rich and powerful.

When Labour wins there will be a reckoning for those who thought they could get away with asset stripping our industry, crashing our economy through their greed and ripping off workers and consumers.

When did the Conservatives – David Cameron, George Osborne, Theresa May, Boris Johnson – ever stand up to their financial backers and demand our money back?

Never and they never will.

Instead, they make others foot the bill – they make our nurses, our carers, our soldiers, our disabled, our young people trying to get a home of their own, our elderly looking for dignity in retirement and those working hard to get on, foot the bill.

It makes me angry. And I know it makes the people of Britain angry too.

So today, I say to tax cheats, the rip off bosses, the greedy bankers; enough is enough.

In this election, Labour is standing for decent jobs, investment for the future, shared wealth creation, security at work, affordable homes for all, a fully funded NHS and schools, training and skills, an end to rip-off privatisation, fair taxation and a fairer, more equal country.

As we set out our detailed plans for Britain, the scale of the change we are offering will become clear.

So let’s turn our country around. Let’s come together to transform Britain. Together, we can win for the many not the few.

Don’t wake up on 9 June to see celebrations from the tax cheats, the press barons, the greedy bankers, Philip Green, the Southern Rail directors and crooked financiers that take our wealth, who have got away with it because the party they own, the Conservative Party, has won.

We have four weeks to ruin their party. We have four weeks to have a chance to take our wealth back.

We have four weeks to show what kind of country we are. We know that the people of Britain don’t pass by on the other side. That is the principle we will take into government so that we can unlock every person’s potential and everyone can make their best contribution to our society.

We have four weeks to win and transform Britain for the many not the few.

We must seize that chance.

Thank you.