Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to Damian Green’s comments on the Andrew Marr Show that the
Tories £8bn NHS manifesto pledge involves reallocating existing budgets, said:

“Damian Green has let the cat out the bag.
The Tories are offering no new money for the NHS at this election, but instead
their offer involves reallocating existing budgets. In 2015 they said they’d
give the NHS £10bn and it turned out to be untrue. They’re up to the same
tricks again.

“As part of Labour’s fully costed manifesto, we are offering the NHS
a cash boost of £8bn this year, including money for urgently needed
capital works, and we’ve said how we will pay for it. Only Labour will give the
NHS the funding it needs to deliver a truly modern, 21^st Century
service for Britain’s patients. Under the Tories the NHS will continue to be
underfunded and overstretched and it is patients who will pay the price.”

Labour will
stand up for older people and has made five key pledges to ensure older people
have the security and dignity they deserve:

1.     
Secure pensioner incomes with the Triple-Lock on state pensions.

2.     
Protect the Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes for
pensioners.

3.     
An extra £45 billion for the NHS and social care.

4.     
No rise in the state pension age beyond 66.

5.      Justice for women born
in the 1950s hit by five year rise in pension age.

Theresa
May’s government has failed older people, their cuts to social care have
resulted in over one million older people not getting the care they need.
Labour will spend an extra £45 billion on the NHS and social care over five
years.

The
Conservative Party manifesto has promised three major new burdens to be placed
on older people:

1.     
Scrapping the ‘triple lock’ on state pensions so that pensioner
incomes are no longer protected.

2.     
Means testing Winter Fuel Payments to remove support to heat the
homes of ten million pensioners  

3.      Forcing those who need
social care to pay for it with their homes.

Pensioners
would be at least £330 worse off under the Tories’ new Double Lock had it been
in place between 2013/14 and 2017/18, compared with the basic state pension
being uprated by the Triple Lock. Under Theresa May’s plan, ten million people
– five out of six pensioners – are set to lose their Winter Fuel Payments,
worth up to £300.

Jeremy
Corbyn, Leader of the Labour party, said:

“Not
satisfied with plunging our social care system into crisis, Theresa May’s nasty
party has promised more attacks on older people:  scrapping the
triple-lock on state pensions, removing the Winter Fuel Allowance and asset
stripping the ill by forcing those who need social care to pay for it with
their homes.

“Labour will protect the Winter Fuel Allowance and Triple-Lock on state
pensions to deliver a secure and dignified retirement for all, and spend an
extra £45 billion on the NHS and social care over five years, so that older
people can get the care they deserve.

“Theresa
May and the Conservatives won’t stand up for pensioners, their only concern is
their billionaire friends. Labour is proud to stand up for the many, not the
few.”

***Check
against delivery***

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party,
speaking at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, said:

Over the last week the dividing lines in
this election have got much clearer and sharper.

The two parties have published their
manifestos. Set out their visions.

And in the case of Labour – but only
Labour – published our sums too.

We don’t just have a vision, we have
costed it too.

By contrast, the Tories are offering
blank cheques made out to misery.

But the contrast is more substantial
than that. I believe that the difference is this:

Where the Tories look to divide, Labour
seeks to bring people together.  

The Tory manifesto must be the most
divisive for many elections past.

They are now pitching young against
old. 

Their manifesto is a typical nasty party
attempt to set generations against each other.

For pensioners they offer a triple
whammy of misery: 

Ending the ‘triple lock’ which protects
pensioner incomes, means-testing the Winter Fuel Allowance and slapping a
‘compassion tax’ on those who need social care by making them pay for it using
their homes.  

Some claim that cutting support for the
elderly is necessary to give more help to the young. But young people are
being offered no hope by the Tories either – loaded up with tuition fee debts,
with next to no chance of a home of their own or a stable, secure
job.  

Labour stands for unity across all ages
and regions in our country.  It is simply wrong to claim that young people
can only be given a fair deal at the expense of the old, or vice versa. We
all depend on each other.

That is why we are calling on the Tories
to drop their anti-pensioner package immediately – older people should not be
used as a political football.  

And we promise that a Labour government
will make education free at all levels and build the homes young families need,
offering the security of a home for life.  

Only Labour stands for the many against
government by, of and for the few.

We say that if we all stand together we
can build a fairer Britain.

There is no trade-off between young and
old – and there should be no trade-off.

Society should not be setting the future
of our young against security for the old.

We have the wealth to offer a decent,
secure life for all.

Labour’s proposals will ask the top 5
per cent of earners and the big corporations to pay a bit more, to help address
these problems.

That way we can make sure that young
people can get homes and pensioners can heat their houses in winter.

That way students can leave college
without a huge burden of debt and older people can have their income protected
through the “triple lock” which only Labour will guarantee.

I believe that this message is getting
through.

The ink wasn’t dry on the Tory manifesto
before some of their own MPs and candidates were inching away from the attack
on the elderly.

They know it’s not right and it’s not
fair.

They may even suspect it’s not much of a
vote-winner.

So Theresa, please end the anxiety for
millions of older people and do a U-turn now. You will end up facing the
right way.

Let me now say a word about young
people.

And it is right that I do so in the
youngest city in Britain, where forty per cent of the population is under 25.

But also a city where nearly ten per
cent of young people are out of work, more than twice the national average.

In a region where poverty is
increasing. Here in the West Midlands one child in three is living in
poverty.  

Sure Start was one of the best
achievements of the last Labour government. We must build on that, instead of
cutting back on school meals. A free school meal, without stigma, is the
right of every child.

To make things still more difficult for
the young, here in the West Midlands house prices have risen by five per cent
over the last year, while wages are still lower than they were in 2008.

It all adds up to the worst thing for
young people – loss of hope.

Hope for a decent, secure job.

Hope that you will be able to get a home
of your own.

Hope that you can enjoy an education
without fear of crippling debt.

We speak, rightly, of left-behind
communities. There are many, alas, in the West Midlands.

But there is also the danger of creating
a left-behind generation, enjoying few of the chances and none of the
advantages of their parents. 

As I said when launching our
manifesto on Tuesday, Labour’s approach is based on hope.

And that is our offer to young people.

Labour will scrap tuition fees and lift
the shadow of debt from students. The Tories won’t.

Labour will invest in jobs, skills and
training across all regions, including here in our traditional industrial
heartland.  The Tories won’t.

Labour will build more than one million
new homes over five years, with more than half being social housing for
rent. The Tories won’t.

This is the sort of policy our young
people have a right to expect from politicians.

After all, in offering the next
generation free education and the chance of a job and a home we are only
offering what should be regarded as basic human rights.

In return, we have the right to ask just
one thing of young people today.

Register to vote.

This weekend is your last chance to
register – the last chance to make sure you can vote Labour on June 8.

Let me be clear to all young people:

I want you to vote Labour.

But above all I want you to vote.

It is a right the working people of this
country fought for.

It is a right that some in the
establishment would diminish or take away.

So let’s dispel once and for all the
myth that young people are apathetic about society by everyone getting on the
electoral register and then getting down to the polling station on June 8.

I know that young people did not leave
politics – politics left them.  Now we are bringing politics back to the
rising generation.

Young, old or somewhere in between, we
are all in the same country, the same communities.

Labour knows that we sink or swim
together.

When the Tories offer tax cuts to their
rich friends, we say let’s make life livable for the many first.

When the Tories want to balance the
books on the backs of the vulnerable, we say let’s tell the wealthy and big
corporations to start paying the tax they owe.

Simple choices. But ones that make
a difference to millions of people.

And there is a simple choice before the
country in this election:

The Labour way of working for the good
of the entire community, or the Tory way which is perpetuating the
grotesque level of inequality that already exists in our society.

I know which one I’ve chosen – the
Labour way, for the many not the few.

Ends.

Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s National Elections Coordinator, responding to Ruth Davidson’s criticism of Tory plans to remove the Winter Fuel Allowance from some pensioners, said:

“When the Scottish Tory Leader comes out against her own Party’s attack on pensioner incomes I think it’s fair to say the policy is starting to unravel.

“The Tory attack on pensioners’ Winter Fuel Allowance is unfair and outrageous, and lays bare the threat they pose to pensioners’ security and living standards.

“The Tories should admit they’ve got it wrong, apologise and drop it immediately.”

Ends

Notes to editors

“We’ve made a different choice in Scotland in our Scottish manifesto today. We believe there shouldn’t be means testing for the winter fuel payment.”
Ruth Davidson, Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Sky News, 19 May 2017

Labour
has today demanded that the Tories immediately abandon plans to remove the
Winter Fuel Allowances from pensioners.

Speaking
at a press conference this morning, John McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor,
said: “This is a savage attack on vulnerable pensioners, particularly those who
are just about managing. We will not stand by and allow so many of them to be
back in a situation where they have to choose whether they heat or eat.”

This
comes as Labour today warns that the Tory manifesto represents a threat to
living standards and increased insecurity for pensioners and working people. 

Commenting
on the “extraordinary” lack of any mention of living standards in the Tories’
manifesto, McDonnell said: “Living standards are falling under the Tories, yet
Theresa May couldn’t promise that she would seek to address this. There is a
clear and unambiguous threat to living standards; an attack on pensioners and
on working people.”

Rebecca
Long-Bailey, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, outlined the threat the Tories
pose to pensioners, including:

·        
The
Tories’ new ‘Double Lock’, which would have left pensioners at least £330 worse
off had it been in place in recent years.

·        
How
five in every six pensioners are set to lose Winter Fuel payments, worth up to
£300.

·        
That
34 million people face the prospect of working longer if Theresa May raises the
State Pension age.

And
it is a similar tale for working people:

·        
Since
2010, the average household is paying more in both direct and indirect
taxation: nearly £2,000, with the threat of further tax rises

·        
Under
the Tories the UK is set to experience the worst decade for real household
disposable incomes since 1949.

Alongside
the press conference, Labour has published a new document titled: ‘The Tory
Threat To Living Standards’. This analysis reveals the scope of the Tory attack
on living standards, setting out how working people and pensioners will pay the
price of the Tories’ betrayal.

***CHECK
AGAINST DELIVERY***

John
McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, speaking at a press conference
outlining the Tory threat to working people, said:

On
the Tory manifesto:

“This
was a manifesto that offers working people and pensioners’ insecurity with a
huge question mark over their living standards.

“Gone
was the commitment to raise working people’s living standards. Gone was the
commitment not to raise taxes on working people. And gone was the commitment to
protect pensioners’ incomes through the triple lock. 

“This
signals a clear threat to working people and to pensioners. So that’s the
choice at this election; a threat to working people’s and pensioners’ living
standards if the Tories are re-elected on the 8th of June, or a Labour plan to
support working people.  A Labour plan that will introduce a Real Living
Wage of £10 an hour by 2020.  A Labour plan that will commit to no income
tax, VAT or NICs rises for 95 per cent of tax payers. And a Labour plan that
will invest in our vital public services.

“That’s
the choice at this election. A clear threat to working people’s living
standards or a Labour Party that will stand up for the many, and not the few.

On
wages:

“We
are currently witnessing the worst decade for pay in 200 years.

“Real
wages are still lower today than they were when the Tories came to power in
2010.

“According
to the OECD, the UK is the only advanced major economy where growth has
returned since the crash but wages have fallen. 

“And
it is unlikely to stop there. Experts have warned that with the cost of living
increasing, household incomes are set to be squeezed even further.”

On
taxation:

“Under
the Tories working families are paying more in tax and there are further tax
rises in the pipeline.

“Since 2010, the average household is paying more
in both direct and indirect taxation- a total of nearly £2,000.

“Labour is promising no increase in taxation on
low and middle income earners. The Tories in contrast have form on tax rises.

“They have increased taxes on working people
before and they will do it again.”

Rebecca
Long-Bailey, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, said:

On
pensioners:

“The
Tories have launched an all-out attack on pensioner incomes, by abandoning the
Triple Lock, cutting Winter Fuel Payments, raising the State Pension age, and
breaking promises on social care and GP access.

“They’ve laid bare the threat they pose
to pensioners’ security and living standards. They have shown beyond doubt
they’re turning their backs on older people and to future generations of
pensioners.

“Theresa May’s message to millions of
workers is now this: work for years longer only to receive far less generous
support in old age.

Notes to editors:

• Link to ‘The Tory threat to living standards’ document: http://www.labour.org.uk/page/-/party-documents/9684_17%20Tory%20threat%20to%20Living%20Standards.pdf