Labour

Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, responding to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, said:

“In the last month, tens of thousands of men, women and children have been displaced from their homes as a result of the violence in Rakhine State, and thousands more are joining them with every passing day, all desperately in need of shelter, medical help, food and clean water.

“As well as a complete end to all further violence and burning of villages, we need to ensure that the thousands of people who have already lost their homes urgently receive the food, water and medicine they need to survive. If the authorities on the ground in Myanmar are deliberately preventing UN bodies and international aid agencies from reaching those displaced families, that decision must be immediately reversed.

“And once the cessation of violence and humanitarian access has been achieved, the work of building a lasting peace must begin, building on the recommendations of Kofi Annan’s Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, including a recognition of the rights and freedoms of the Rohingya people, and an end to restrictions on their movement.

“Britain and the rest of the world community must stand ready to support that process, but it will firstly rely on the civilian and military authorities in Myanmar living up to their responsibilities within a modern democratic government. As a long-standing, critical friend, we should expect and demand nothing less.”

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Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to Chief superintendent Gavin Thomas’ comments on police funding and resources, said:

“Once again we see influential voices from within policing warning of the disastrous effects of the Tories’ continued funding cuts in the face of rising demands on policing services.

“Ministers should finally take heed of this latest warning and stop asking the police to do more with less.

“It is no surprise morale is low when frontline officers have seen so many colleagues lose their jobs, while their own pay has frozen under seven years of Tory austerity.

“You cannot protect the public on the cheap, which is why Labour has pledged to give officers the pay rise they deserve and put 10,000 extra bobbies on the beat.”

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“Today’s warning from NHS Providers should come as a wake-up call to this Tory Government.

 “Reports of “dangerous” bed shortages this winter putting patient safety at risk are extremely worrying and will lead to yet more patients being left in the back of ambulances or stranded on hospital trolleys for hours on end.

 “At the General Election Labour promised a cash injection to cope with this year’s winter crisis. The Government urgently needs to follow our lead and to heed the advice from health bosses to provide an immediate funding boost this winter to avoid serious harm to patients.“

The Labour Party is calling on the Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, David Gauke MP, to come before Parliament to explain why the Government has failed to implement recommendations from a United Nations report into the rights of disabled people, which has resulted in the chair of the UN’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities describing the situation as a ‘human catastrophe’ for disabled people.

Following the first ever investigation into a breach of their convention protecting disabled people’s rights last year, the UN found that the UK Government has committed ‘grave and systematic violations’, and set out a number of measures they needed to take to improve.

As yesterday’s review described, implementation of the initial recommendations has been ‘uneven’ and ‘insufficient’. Despite having months to improve, the Government is still failing to understand, adapt to or apply a human rights model of disability; to properly consult disabled people in the implementation of the convention; and to address concerns about the impact of austerity measures which have increased levels of poverty among disabled people.

Debbie Abrahams MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said:

“Yesterday’s damning report highlights the complete failure of this Tory Government to listen to the UN, and to take action to guarantee the basic rights of disabled people.

“Their lack of progress across almost all of the UN Committee’s recommendations reflects the Government’s refusal to accept the misery faced by disabled people as a result of their failing austerity agenda.

“The Secretary of State must come before the House at the earliest possible opportunity to explain why the Government has refused to listen to the UN, and instead continues to violate disabled people’s rights.

“The next Labour Government will incorporate the UN CRPD fully into UK law.”

Debbie Abrahams MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, responded to the concluding observations by UN Committee on Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the initial UK report, said:
 
“The UN Committee, in making such a high number of recommendations to a nation state, has found that this Tory government is still failing sick and disabled people. Their damning report highlights what many disabled people already know to be true, that they are being forced to bear the brunt of failed Tory austerity policies.  The Committee also expressed concerns about future rights for disabled people after Brexit.

“This confirms what Labour has been saying all along, that the lack of progress on all Convention articles, including cruel changes to social security and the punitive sanctions regime, are causing real misery for sick and disabled people. 
 
“Labour will transform our social security system in partnership with disabled people to ensure that, like our NHS, it is there for us all in our time of need.  The next Labour Government will incorporate the UN CRPD fully into UK law and immediately reverse the PIP regulations, as called for by the UN.”

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