Labour

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on reports that independent school students gain extra time for exams, said:

“Our education system allows children with special educational needs extra time in exams to ensure that they are not unfairly disadvantaged. The suggestion that this could be being abused raises serious questions about the fairness of this arrangement.

“The Government needs to look at this urgently to make sure that no school is abusing the system.”

Ends

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, commenting on reports that Jeremy Hunt said the problems facing some parts of NHS England are ‘completely unacceptable’, said:

“These are hollow words from the Secretary of State this morning. On his watch the NHS is suffering from the biggest financial squeeze in history and social care is at tipping point. Jeremy Hunt appears to be finally waking up to the scale of the crisis but he must now accept responsibility. Instead he offers just hand wringing but no solutions. 

“This week we have seen more and more statistics revealing that patients are waiting longer, and suffering longer in discomfort.

“Government advisor Lord Carter has extraordinarily called NHS conditions ‘warlike’ and now Sir Robert Francis says there is an ‘existential crisis’ for the health service warning that another Mid Staffs is ‘inevitable.’

“By making such stark warnings Sir Robert Francis blows apart Jeremy Hunt’s rhetoric on putting patient safety first.

“The Prime Minister can’t just put her head in the sand and ignore these astounding warnings. This is clearly not just a ‘small number of incidents’ as she glibly suggested.

“The Government’s mismanagement of the NHS is causing chaos and misery for patients. We can’t go on like this. They need to listen to the experts and explain fully in the Budget in a few weeks time how they will put the NHS and social care on sustainable footing. NHS patients and their families should never be put through a winter like this again.

Ends

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“I’m pleased to announce appointments to Labour’s Shadow Cabinet. We have a wealth of talent in our party and the strength of our shadow team will develop Labour’s alternative plan to rebuild and transform Britain, so that no one and no community is left behind.”

The new appointments are:

Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – Rebecca Long-Bailey

Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Sue Hayman

Shadow Secretary of State for Wales – Christina Rees

Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury – Peter Dowd

Ends

Sarah Champion MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, responding to today’s statistical release from the ONS on violent crime and sexual offences, said:  

“It is unacceptable that hundreds of thousands of women still suffer violence in the home every year. And the official figures significantly underestimate the true extent of the problem.

“But under this Tory Government domestic violence services are in crisis and funding for front-line professionals is being cut.

“Ministers must do much more to ensure that every victim of domestic abuse has access to support they need.”

Ends

Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, speaking in response to the Home Secretary’s defence of the Government decision to end the Dubs scheme prematurely, said:

“Labour cannot accept this decision. This seems to breach the spirit of the law passed with cross-party support. Accepting 350 unaccompanied child refugees is far short of the expected 3,000.

“There will no doubt be legal challenges to this decision. This government is not above the law.

“In any event, Labour commits to meeting the obligations of the Dubs Amendment. We will restore the scheme and accept some of the most vulnerable children in the world.”