Labour

Angela Rayner MP, Shadow Sectary of State for Education, commenting on the Government’s School Revenue Funding Settlement published today, said:

“Today’s announcement simply confirms that the Conservatives will do nothing to reverse per-pupil funding cuts since 2015 or compensate schools for £2.7 billion in cuts to school funding.

“It is a source of national shame that the Government has decided not to give our schools the resources they need despite soaring class sizes, with teachers leaving the profession in record numbers and recruitment targets being missed.

“The next Labour government will reverse the cuts to school budgets and protect per-pupil funding in real terms, as we build a National Education Service that will create a country for the many, and not just the few.”

Ends

Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, speaking in response to the announcement of the police funding grant, said:

“This Tory Government cannot spin its way out of a police funding crisis.

“The truth is that today’s announcement means a real terms cut to the police grant. Since 2010 the Tories have made huge cuts to the police, 20,000 police officers have been lost and an increasing number of overstretched forces say they cannot respond to certain crimes.

“Ministers have chosen to hammer the local taxpayer but the Communities Secretary admitted this will raise little under half of the real-terms cuts facing local forces. Further cuts in police officer numbers are now inevitable.

“Labour will protect police funding to keep communities safe.”

Imran Hussain MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Minister, responding to the National Audit Office investigation into changes to Community Rehabilitation Company contracts, said:

“This is yet more evidence of how the Conservatives’ part-privatisation of probation has been a costly failure that is placing the public at greater risk.

“The Government was warned that this privatisation would fail but it carried on regardless.

“As a result hundreds of millions of pounds are being wasted bailing out private probation companies which are not even meeting basic performance targets. The Conservatives should follow Labour’s lead and begin a review into how and when it will return these probation services to public control.”

Andrew Gwynne MP, Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, responding to the Local Government Finance Settlement announced in the House of Commons by Sajid Javid, Communities and Local Government Secretary, said:

“Local government is under enormous pressure because of politically motivated Tory cuts that have hit the poorest areas hardest since 2010. Local councils have seen their budgets slashed by 40 per cent since the Tories came to power. 

“The council tax precept has already proven to be an inadequate and short-term sticking plaster for a problem which needs long-term answers. Shifting the burden on to council tax payers creates a postcode lottery in services with the most deprived authorities suffering most.

“This Conservative Government won’t stand up for working people and ordinary families are paying the price as councils are forced to cut services to fill the gap. We need to elect as many Labour Councillors as possible on the 3rd May next year to stand up against these unfair Tory cuts.”

Rebecca Long Bailey MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, commenting on the Investment Association Public Register of executive pay, said:

“Today’s register confirms that under the Tories, the fat cats of corporate Britain earn pay rise after pay rise, often against the advice of shareholders. This is all whilst ordinary workers are faced with stagnating wages and a cost of living crisis.

“The pay of some big bosses is clearly spiralling out of control. The register reveals the real impact of a system which puts the interests of the few over the many, a system that has left millions of people up and down the country on low pay and in insecure, low skilled jobs.

“Labour will roll out a maximum pay ratio of 20:1 in companies bidding for public contracts. We will increase taxes on only the highest earners in order to raise vital funds for our struggling public services and create an economy that works for the many, not the few.”