Labour

Mike Kane MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Minister, responding to the National Audit Office’s report which has found teacher recruitment is not keeping up with rising pupil numbers, said:

“Teacher shortages are reaching crisis point and it is subjects that are vital to our country’s future such as science and computing that are hardest hit.

“The Education Select Committee, the School Teachers’ Review Body, and the last Education Secretary have all said that the public sector pay cap is contributing to challenges in teacher recruitment, yet the Government have again said that they will continue to impose the cap.

“There is no greater investment a government can make in education than in the quality of teaching. It is time the Tories read the writing on the wall and lifted the public sector pay cap – their continued inaction is threatening our children’s education.”

Peter Dowd MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responding to today’s inflation figures, said:

“The continued rise in inflation will come as further bad news for working families; who after 7 years of Tory economic failure have seen their wages fail to keep up with prices.

“During a week in which we have so far seen the Government send mixed messages on their public sector pay freeze, and their chaotic handling of Brexit, they still have no answers to the squeeze on incomes that working households are facing; yet Philip Hammond still plans to handout over £70 billion in tax giveaways to big business and the super-rich over the next five years.

“Only a Labour government will protect the living standards of working people by bringing in a Real Living Wage of £10 per hour, and an immediate end to austerity spending cuts.“

Keir Starmer, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, following tonight’s vote in the House of Commons on the EU Withdrawal Bill, said:

“This is a deeply disappointing result.

“This Bill is an affront to parliamentary democracy and a naked power grab by Government Ministers. It leaves rights unprotected, it silences Parliament on key decisions and undermines the devolution settlement.

“It will make the Brexit process more uncertain, and lead to division and chaos when we need unity and clarity. 

“Labour will seek to amend and remove the worst aspects from the Bill as it passes through Parliament. But the flaws are so fundamental it’s hard to see how this Bill could ever be made fit for purpose”.

Ends

Sue Hayman MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, commenting on the report of the Special Rapporteur on the implications on environmental protections and standards on human rights in the UK, said:

“This is a damning and shameful indictment of the Government’s lack of action on air quality and a stark warning ahead of Brexit of its flimsy promises on the future of environmental protections.

“The UN Special Rapporteur raises some extremely grave concerns in his report, most notably regarding Michael Gove’s ‘worrying’ lack of commitment to environmental protections post Brexit, the crippling impact of austerity on the UK’s ability to monitor and enforce environmental standards, and the disregard for the health of UK citizens.

“By simply blaming our membership of the E.U. on the long list of failings outlined in the report, the response from the government could not have been more inappropriate or cynical.

“Michael Gove must urgently set out his response to the concerns raised in this report and take stronger and more immediate action on all areas of public health and environmental concern that have been highlighted.”

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on reports that the Tories are to lift the public sector pay cap for specific roles only, said:

“The next Labour government will lift the public sector pay cap for all public sector workers and we are demanding nothing less than that from this shambolic government. The crisis in our public services is a crisis made in Downing Street. The pay review bodies have been operating under the constraint of a Tory 1 per cent cap for seven years. The pay cap must now be lifted across the whole public sector rather than by playing one group of workers off against another.”