Ian Lavery and Andrew Gwynne are
appointed joint National Elections and Campaign Coordinators for the Labour
Party.

Jon Trickett is appointed Shadow
Minister for the Cabinet Office and will remain Shadow Lord President of the
Council.

Ends

Debbie
Abrahams MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on a
letter from the Social Security Advisory Committee addressing the Government’s
policy to limit child tax credits to two children, said:

“The
Social Security Advisory Committee is right to raise very serious concerns over
Tory plans to limit child tax credits to two children.

“An
arbitrary cap on the number of children the Government will support is not only
cruel, but is bad policy.

“Requiring
survivors of rape to justify themselves in this way constitutes an unacceptable
extension by the Government into deeply sensitive areas of women’s lives.

“That’s
why Labour is calling on the Tories to scrap this pernicious policy before it
takes effect in April.”

ENDS

Paul
Blomfield MP, Labour’s Shadow Brexit Minister, commenting on the leaked
Government report dividing British industries into high, medium and low
priority in the Brexit negotiations, said:

“Hard
working people, the back bone of our manufacturing sector, will be the losers
in this Tory harsh Brexit.

“Pharmaceuticals
is ranked as ‘high priority’ yet the Health Secretary has confirmed we will
likely pull out of the European Medicines Agency, threatening access to drugs
for patients and thousands of jobs.

“Steel
construction is ranked as ‘low priority’ – a shocking indictment of a
Government that claims to understand the importance of manufacturing.

“The
Government must urgently explain this ranking and confirm that jobs,
livelihoods, and speedy access to new drugs will be at the centre of its Brexit
plans.”

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Education
Secretary, commenting on reports that independent school students gain extra time for exams, said:

“Our education system
allows children with special educational needs extra time in exams to ensure
that they are not unfairly disadvantaged. The suggestion that this could be
being abused raises serious questions about the fairness of this
arrangement.

“The
Government needs to look at this urgently to make sure that no school is
abusing the system.”

Ends

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary,
commenting on reports that Jeremy Hunt said the problems facing some parts of
NHS England are ‘completely unacceptable’, said:

“These are hollow words from the Secretary of State
this morning. On his watch the NHS is suffering from the biggest financial
squeeze in history and social care is at tipping point. Jeremy Hunt appears to
be finally waking up to the scale of the crisis but he must now accept
responsibility. Instead he offers just hand wringing but no solutions. 

“This week we have seen more and more statistics
revealing that patients are waiting longer, and suffering longer in discomfort.

“Government
advisor Lord Carter has extraordinarily called NHS conditions ‘warlike’ and now
Sir Robert Francis says there is an ‘existential crisis’ for the health service
warning that another Mid Staffs is ‘inevitable.’

“By
making such stark warnings Sir Robert Francis blows apart Jeremy Hunt’s
rhetoric on putting patient safety first.

“The
Prime Minister can’t just put her head in the sand and ignore these astounding
warnings. This is clearly not just a ‘small number of incidents’ as she glibly
suggested.

“The Government’s mismanagement of the NHS is causing
chaos and misery for patients. We
can’t go on like this. They need to listen to the experts and explain
fully in the Budget in a few weeks time how they will put the
NHS and social care on sustainable footing. NHS patients and their families
should never be put through a winter like this again.

Ends