Labour

Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Mental Health, commenting on the Government’s Mental Health Workforce plan, said:

“Being able to recruit thousands of new mental health staff hinges on the money being there to pay for them. Yet, this Tory Government expects mental health and acute trusts to foot more than half the bill themselves. 

“Asking trusts to find savings of £744 million over the next four years when services have already been cut to the bone shows just how out of touch this Tory Government is. These plans simply do not add up.”

Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Mental Health, commenting on Health Education England’s Mental Health Workforce Strategy, said: 

“Once again this Tory Government is promising only jam tomorrow, when what is needed is action today to tackle the staffing crisis in mental health. The workforce plan provides no real answers on how these new posts will be funded or how recruitment issues will be overcome. And it offers little hope to those working in the sector faced with mounting workloads, low pay and poor morale.

“Time and again the Tories have been warned that severe staffing shortages are affecting patient care. Only this month the Care Quality Commission highlighted staffing levels, in particular the cuts to mental health nurses, as a contributing factor to 40 per cent of mental health services now failing on safety grounds. 

“A Labour Government will provide the investment needed to recruit and train staff with the right skills to deliver the mental health services patients need and deserve. We will legislate for safe staffing, reinstate nurse bursaries, lift the one per cent pay cap for NHS staff and ring-fence mental health funding to make sure it reaches the frontline.”

John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, responding to the Government announcement of an independent review of building regulations and fire safety, said:

“It has taken more than six weeks since the Grenfell Tower fire for the Government to release test results of just 82 of the 4000 tower blocks around the country. Landlords still can’t get other types of cladding tested and Government ministers still can’t say how many high-rise blocks are unsafe. 

“The Government’s testing programme is confused and too slow.

“The long-awaited review of buildings regulations and fire safety is welcome but long overdue, as Ministers promised this four years ago after the last fatal high-rise fires. 

“The Government must also now expand the testing programme, publish results in full so that residents and landlords know whether or not their buildings are safe and stand by their earlier promise to help fund the costs of any necessary work.”

Ends 

Keir Starmer MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, responding to Philip Hammond’s comments that the UK will seek a Brexit transitional deal for up to three years, said:

“Labour has been calling on the Government to commit to appropriate transitional arrangements for a long time. If jobs and the economy are to come first, there can be no threat of a cliff-edge for businesses after we leave the European Union.

“The Chancellor now appears to accept this. However, in light of the clear divisions this week within the Cabinet, I hope the Chancellor was not merely speaking in a personal capacity.

“I also hope that this is the final burial of the flawed proposition that ‘no deal’ is a viable option.”

Millions of children across England are at risk of going hungry over the summer holidays, official figures suggest.

The worst affected will be the over 1.1 million children who are eligible for and claiming a free school meal, who will miss out over the holidays.

Millions more could be at risk, as government figures show that 30 per cent of children (nearly 4 million) across England are living in poverty, whose families may not be able to afford food.

New analysis from the Trussell Trust shows that there is an increase in the number of food packages being given to families with children over the summer, showing the extent of holiday hunger across the country.

Moreover, an answer to a Written Question tabled by Angela Rayner MP shows that the Department for Education “has made no assessment of the number of children who are at risk of experiencing hunger during school summer holidays in 2017.”

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said:

“It is a national disgrace that millions of children across the country are at risk of going hungry this summer.

“The Government has admitted it has no plans to assist children who are facing hunger during the school holidays.

“The Conservatives are failing in their duty of care to children in poverty, whose numbers are increasing to Dickensian levels under Tory austerity.

“With the IFS forecasting that child poverty will rise to 5 million by 2022, Labour is demanding that the Government brings forward a new strategy to tackle child poverty.