Tag Archives: Labour

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on the Government’s funding announcement for schools in England, said:

“None of today’s announcement is new money. Seven years of Tory neglect has left our children in crumbling and overcrowded schools.

“The National Audit Office have already told us that existing school buildings across the country are inadequate, while money has been ploughed into inefficient free schools and the Prime Minister’s grammar schools vanity project.

“This announcement will do nothing to address the funding crisis facing schools across the country.”

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, commenting on the Prime Minister’s visit to Saudi Arabia, said:

“The Prime Minister should put human rights and international law at the centre of her talks with Saudi Arabia’s government this week.

“Numerous human rights organisations, including the UNHRC and Amnesty International, have documented the dictatorial Saudi monarchy’s shocking human rights record.

“The Saudi-led coalition bombing in Yemen, backed by the British government, has left thousands dead, 21 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and three million refugees uprooted from their homes.

“Yemen urgently needs a ceasefire, a political settlement, and food aid, not more bombing. British-made weapons are being used in a war which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

“Britain must halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia immediately, throw its weight behind a ceasefire resolution at the United Nations and back a full and genuinely independent investigation of the evidence of war crimes in Yemen.

“As it stands, the British-Saudi relationship is damaging to the people of Saudi Arabia, Britain and the wider Middle East, and helping to export insecurity to the rest of the world. 

“Unless the Prime Minister challenges the Saudi regime over its abuses this week, it will be clear she is ready to sacrifice human rights and security on the altar of the arms trade.”

Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, speaking in response to the announcement that bail terms will now generally be limited to 28 days, said:

“This is a welcome move, which ought to end open-ended bail periods for all but exceptional cases.

“But in general this Government has been cutting access to justice, with new tribunal fees and deep cuts to legal aid. Recent laws have also reduced the privacy of citizens. This change to bail is a move in the right direction, but most Government policy is going the opposite way.”

Labour research reveals that the Tories’ tax changes that came into effect on 1 April will see £2.5 billion in tax giveaways alone handed out to big business and a wealthy few in 2017/18.

The figures also reveal that by 2022, Tory Tax giveaways that came into effect on 1 April could total around £20 billion, which includes over £2 billion in corporation tax giveaways to big corporations like Google in the next year alone.

These changes will take place at the same time as the Government goes ahead with billions of pounds worth of cuts to low income working families on in-work benefits.

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, said:

“This April the Tories are taking working families for fools by thinking they can hand out billions of pounds in tax giveaways to big business and the super-rich and expect no one to care, while at the same time cutting in-work benefits to the low paid.

“These figures show the true priorities of Theresa May and Philip Hammond. They refuse to ensure that big corporations like Google pay their fair share, while they are handing out huge tax giveaways worth billions, and cutting the incomes of low paid people in our country.

“Only Labour will create a fair tax system: one in which all big businesses pay their fair-share and working families are supported by ending the tax giveaways at the top, bringing in a £10 an hour Real Living Wage by 2020, and reversing the cuts to in-work benefits.”

Emily Thornberry MP, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, remarking on former Tory Leader Michael Howard’s comments, said:

“Inflammatory comments like those by Michael Howard will not help Britain get what it needs from these difficult Brexit negotiations. Sadly it’s typical of the botched Tory approach which threatens a bad deal for Britain. 

“Labour is clear that the sovereignty of Gibraltar must be protected and that the interests of British citizens in Gibraltar are safeguarded.”

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