Richard
Burgon MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, responding to Justice Secretary
Liz Truss’s speech at the Centre for Social Justice, said:

“It’s
about time Justice Secretary Truss stopped mud-slinging and took
responsibility. Liz Truss knows full well it is not and never has been Labour’s
policy to halve the prison population. Labour’s policy is to properly fund and
run our prison and probation service, make the safety of prison staff a top
priority and make society safer by jailing those who are a threat to public
safety. Labour will make rehabilitation work.

“Conservatives
in power have made a mess of our prison and probation service and have created
the current prisons crisis. This is dangerous for staff, dangerous for inmates
and dangerous for the public.  We await with interest the Prisons and
Courts Bill which will hopefully have some of the detail Liz Truss’s White
Paper failed to provide.“

Ends

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to Sir
Robert Francis’ comments on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, said:

 "Sir Robert Francis’
message is clear: the funding crisis in the NHS is putting patient care at
risk. The NHS should be the safest and best in the world, but Sir Robert’s
warning is that this cannot be achieved given the scale of the financial crisis
now engulfing hospital departments up and down the country. 

 "The
Tories’ behaviour to date has been to blame patients and doctors for the
pressures facing the NHS. But the truth is that the cause of this crisis lies
squarely at the feet of The Prime Minister. Theresa May must immediately agree
to bring forward a comprehensive funding package for health and social care in
the March Budget so no patients are
put a risk of harm or unsafe care.“

Justin Madders MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to reports that a lack of Government planning means that Locum Doctors are being paid up to £363 an hour, said:

“The Government has completely failed to deliver on NHS workforce planning and now they are losing control of NHS finances as well.

“It’s not right that this amount of money is leaking out the system to agencies and temporary staff at a time when funding is so tight that operations are being cancelled and services cut back.

“The cap on agency payments has been breached a shocking 2.7 million times in just nine months. The Government needs a solution to help the NHS get the permanent staff it needs to keep patients safe.  

“Jeremy Hunt should be making sure money meant for the NHS is going to patient care, not private agencies.“

Ends

Nia Griffith MP, Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary,
commenting on the decision to close down The Iraq Historic Allegations Team,
said:

“I
welcome today’s announcement that the stress and worry that this inquiry has
caused to service personnel and veterans will soon be brought to an end.

"I completely
condemn the spurious and untrue allegations that have been levelled against
service members and veterans. Labour has long said that anyone facing
investigation should be properly supported by the Government. 

"It
is now important that the inquiry’s work is completed promptly and properly in
order to eliminate any risk of these vexatious claims arising again in
future.”

Ends

Emily Thornberry, Shadow Foreign
Secretary, responding to today’s revelations regarding arms exports to
Saudi Arabia, said:

“We have discovered today that, even after the bombing of the
funeral hall in Sana’a and the concerns of Liam Fox’s department about the risk
that British weapons were being used in breach of International Humanitarian
Law, Boris Johnson gave his personal reassurance that the Saudi-led coalition
was improving its targeting processes and ensuring that any incidents where
non-military targets had been bombed were being properly investigated.

"According to the independent
Yemen Data Project, in the 55 days between Boris Johnson writing his letter and
the end of 2016, Saudi forces bombed 60 residential sites in Yemen, including
houses, markets and refugee camps. At this time of heightening humanitarian
crisis, they bombed 46 sites of economic infrastructure, including farms, water
tanks and food trucks, and 48 sites of physical infrastructure, including
roads, bridges and ports. They also managed to bomb three schools and a
university. Not a single one of these 160 incidents has yet been investigated
by the Saudi authorities. If this is what Boris Johnson calls the Saudis
‘improving processes and…taking action to address failures’, then I would
sorely hate to see the opposite.

"It should not be left to the
courts to rule whether the export licences for these arms sales should have
been granted. It should be for this Government to show some long-overdue
caution and concern about the way the Saudi campaign is being conducted, the
devastating humanitarian crisis that campaign is helping to cause, and the
blatant failure to ensure any proper, independent investigation of these
alleged crimes against international law.”

Ends