Labour analysis demonstrates £3bn blackhole in
Tory spending plans revealing the damage this government’s weak and unstable
leadership has done to the public finances.

The blackhole,
which does not include unfunded commitments made in the un-costed Tory
manifesto and could be set to rise,  is made up of: 

·  The Government being ordered by the Supreme Court last month to repay up
to £32m in unlawful Employment tribunal fees introduced since 2013

·   Philip Hammonds u-turn on proposed increases in the rates of Class 4
National Insurance Contributions on low and middle income self-employed workers in response to Labour opposition following the Spring
Budget 2017

·    The £1bn additional funding allocated to Northern Ireland as a result of
the Conservative and DUP coalition agreement

In
light of reports the Chancellor is planning further spending cuts or tax rises
to meet the blackhole that his shambolic stewardship has created, Labour have
today called upon Philip Hammond to rule out further tax rises on low and
middle income earners over the course of the next Parliament. 

Peter
Dowd, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the treasury, writing to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer today said,

“Philip Hammond has created
a £3bn black hole in the nations finances as a result of his and this
Government’s incompetence. Labour are calling for a guarantee that taxes will
not be raised on low and middle income earners to pay for this Government’s
shambolic leadership.”

Text
of the letter:

Dear
Chancellor,

I
have read with some concern news reports that you are looking at ways to
increase taxation to cover the £1bn costs of your deal for Democratic Unionist
Party votes.

In
addition to the £2bn costs of your reversal of planned rises in Class 4
National Insurance Contributions, and the £32m costs of the your government’s
Employment Tribunal fee cuts being declared illegal, a black hole of more than
£3bn has been created in the public finances.

A
new Budget is not due until Autumn, leaving taxpayers with significant
uncertainty over your plans to close the enormous gap in the government’s
finances.

With
household budgets already squeezed by falling real-terms pay, and worsening
forecasts for the economy as a whole, I believe it is essential that you now
provide some reassurance ahead of your Budget that ordinary families will not
bear the brunt of your government’s successive failures.

For
the course of this Parliament:

·        
Can you now rule out
rises in Value Added Tax?

·        
Can you now rule out
rises in self-employed and employee National Insurance Contributions?

·        
Can you now rule out
rises in the basic rate of Income Tax?

I
look forward to your reply.

Peter
Dowd

Shadow
Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Tom
Watson MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and
Sport, commenting
on reports that the Chancellor has scrapped the Fixed-odds betting terminals
(FOBTs) review, said: 

“This
is an astonishing intervention by Philip Hammond.

“If the
Treasury has insisted the review is shelved then the Chancellor has ridden
roughshod over his Cabinet colleagues and overwhelming public evidence about
the danger these highly addictive machines pose.

“British
gamblers lost £1.8 billion on fixed-odds betting terminals last year alone,
money that could make a better contribution to the economy if spent
elsewhere. 

“If
Philip Hammond was so concerned about his bottom line, maybe he shouldn’t have
approved a £1 billion sweetheart deal with the DUP. 

“The
Department for Culture, Media and Sport should stand up to the Treasury and
publicly assure us the review has not been shelved." 

Barbara
Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Mental Health Minister, commenting on NHS England’s
announcement that an appropriate place has been found for Young Person X, said:

“It is a
relief to know that a safe and appropriate place looks to have been found for
Young Person X.

“This
case must act as a wake-up call for the Government, who must now invest
properly in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services so that we never find
ourselves in this position again.”

Barbara Keeley
MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Mental Health, has today
written to Jeremy Hunt, following the judgment of Sir James Munby in the case
of the young person referred to as X, calling on the Health Secretary to take personal
action today to ensure the allocation of a supportive and safe placement for
the young person X.  

In the letter, Keeley urges Hunt to take heed of the ‘scathing
words in this judgment’ and take immediate action to deal with the shortcomings
in our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. To achieve this, Keeley
calls on the Government to announce extra funding for those services and commit
to ring-fencing funding both for CAMHS and mental health services more
generally.

Ends

Notes to editors

Full text of the letter

Dear
Jeremy,

I am
writing to you following the judgment of Sir James Munby in the Family Division
of the High Court on 3rd August in the case of the young person referred to as
X. The scathing words in this judgment stand as a warning of the need for
urgent action to improve the care available for children and young people in a
mental health crisis.

The judge
said:

“What
this case demonstrates .. is the disgraceful and utterly shaming lack of proper
provision in this country of the clinical, residential and other support
services so desperately needed by the increasing numbers of children and young
people afflicted with the same kind of difficulties as X is burdened with…

“If this
is the best we can do for X, and others in similar crisis, what right do we,
what right do the system, our society and indeed the State itself, have to call
ourselves civilised? The honest answer to this question should make us all feel
ashamed…

“If, when
in eleven days’ time she is released from ZX, we, the system, society, the
State, are unable to provide X with the supportive and safe placement she so
desperately needs, and if, in consequence, she is enabled to make another
attempt on her life, then I can only say, with bleak emphasis: we will have
blood on our hands.”

On Monday
of this week you defended your Government’s performance on mental health
services by saying “Look at our record”. The judgment in the case of X allows
us to make that examination and it finds current services seriously wanting.

There
have been many reports warning of the current weaknesses of Child and
Adolescent Mental Health Services. In a report in May 2016, the Children’s
Commissioner reported that: “of particular concern were some of the 3,000
children and young people we heard about who were referred to CAMHS with a
life-threatening condition (such as suicide, self-harm, psychosis and anorexia
nervosa), of whom: – 14% were not allocated any provision; – 51% went on a
waiting list; – some waited over 112 days to receive services.”

In
October 2016, you said that CAMHS: “is possibly the biggest single area of
weakness in NHS provision at the moment” and that there were “too many
tragedies”.

Sir James
Munby has expressed his fears about the worst potential outcome in this case.
We must also be aware of other similar and pressing cases.

I urge
you to take personal action today to ensure the allocation of a supportive and
safe placement for the young person X.  I further urge you to make plans
to deal with the shortcomings so clearly identified in our CAMHS services and
to announce both extra funding for those  services and plans to ring-fence
funding both for CAMHS and for mental health services more generally.

As Sir
James Munby has said, if the current state of Child and Adolescent Mental
Health Services is the best we can do, what right does the State have to call
itself civilised?

Given the
level of public interest in this case, I will be making this letter public.

Yours
sincerely,

Barbara
Keeley MP

Shadow
Cabinet Minister for Mental Health

Holly Lynch MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs, responding to Michael Gove’s comments on post-Brexit fishing
access to UK waters, said:

“The Government is sending out mixed messages on who will be
allowed to fish in UK waters post-Brexit. 

"Michael Gove, after previously taking a tough line on
exclusive rights for U.K. vessels, is already watering down those
commitments. 

"The Government must clarify its position urgently to prevent
further damage to EU diplomatic relations that could potentially harm a deal
for the British fishing industry.”