Jon Trickett MP,
Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, responding to
Michael Gove’s comments on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, said:

“Boris Johnson’s cavalier approach to
international diplomacy is compounded this morning by Michael Gove claiming he
has no idea what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing in Iran. It has always
been clear, she was on holiday visiting her family.

“It appears
Gove is more interested in protecting Johnson’s job than the liberty of a
British citizen in jail in Iran.

“Theresa May must
ensure Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe does not pay the price for her ministers’
bungling.”

Sue
Hayman MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, commenting on proposals for a new environmental
watchdog, said:

“We will have to wait to see whether
the proposed watchdog will have the independence, powers and funding it needs
to properly enforce environmental law after Brexit. The Government must now put
its warm words into action by supporting Labour’s environmental amendments to
the Withdrawal Bill next week.

“Securing the future of our environment and the natural world requires more
than just movement on governance and enforcement. Ensuring that environmental
standards and protections are properly protected after Brexit requires a series
of further changes to the Withdrawal Bill including the incorporation of the
precautionary and polluter pays principles into UK law.

“Labour will be urging the Government to go further next week and take
additional steps to guard against the desire of some in the Tory party to use
Brexit as an opportunity to undermine hard-won environmental gains”.

Labour
research reveals that a total of £37bn was paid out in dividend payments to
shareholders by privatised companies since 2010.

The
research, conducted in consultation with the respected House of Commons
Library, reveals that in 2017 alone these companies paid out a total of £4.8
billion in dividend payments to shareholders.

The list includes some well-known
household names such as Centrica, which runs British Gas and has paid out £5.2
billion to shareholders since 2010.

The Shadow Chancellor spoke today
at an economic conference in Lincoln to mark the 800^th anniversary
of the Charter of the Forest, which in 1217 enshrined the rights of people to
access common necessities of the day.

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow
Chancellor,
speaking at Labour’s regional economic conference in Lincoln today, said:

“These figures show what could
have gone into investment in these public services in order to expand and
improve them or keep their charges down.

“The last seven years of austerity
has seen working families suffer from stagnant wages not being able to keep up
with prices of items like energy bills, and underfunded public services, yet
billions has gone into the hands of shareholders.

“The next Labour government will
call an end to the privatisation of our public sector, and we will look to
bring back in to public ownership many of the vital services sold off by the
Tories, which are undermining the living standards of millions of working
households.”

Dawn Butler MP, Labour’s Shadow
Women and Equalities Secretary, commenting
on Equal Pay Day today, said:

“From today onwards women
effectively work the rest of the year for free, which means fifty days of
unpaid labour until we hit 2018.

“The fact that the gender pay gap
has remained the same for the past three years is a shocking indictment of the
Government’s failure to tackle unequal pay and the underlying structural issues that allow these disparities to exist.

“Labour is the party of equality. It was Labour that introduced the Equal Pay Act in
1970 and the next Labour Government will take the necessary action to
end the scourge of unequal pay once and for all.”

Keir
Starmer MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, commenting on latest round of
negotiation talks between David Davis and Michel Barnier, said:

“Once
again, there has been no acceleration in the Brexit talks. With the December
deadline just weeks away, the British people and businesses are no clearer
about what the next phase will look like or how it will affect them.

“Both sides
need to work flat out between now and the next EU Council meeting to ensure
sufficient progress can be made and the talks can move to the next phase.
Labour are committed to a Brexit deal that puts jobs and the economy first.
Failure to reach an agreement would be catastrophic for people’s living
standards. The longer there is no progress in the Brexit talks, the greater the
risk of no deal.”