Rebecca Long Bailey, Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary, responding to a fall in the number of hybrid cars sold, said:

“If the government is serious about tackling the climate emergency
they must put money where their mouth is and take real action, not cut
subsidies which were working. Their mixed messages are undermining
efforts both by manufacturers and consumers to make the transition to
low emissions vehicles.

“On the one hand they want to end the sale of combustion engines by
2040 but on the other hand they are cutting subsidies and dragging their
feet on the infrastructure necessary to make it happen.

“We can all agree that electrification is necessary but it can only
be done if government supports industry and consumers to meet the
challenge.”

New research published today by the Labour Party reveals the shocking state of hospitals across the country.

Freedom of information requests were sent to every hospital trust in England. 170 trusts responded. The data shows:

• 76 hospital trusts in England revealed that incidents had occurred
  at their trust due to estates and infrastructure failures in 2018/19.
• Problems included sewage and water leaking on to hospital wards, broken lifts, and ceilings collapsing.
• Some incidents have affected patient care, often leading to the
  cancellation of appointments and leaving people waiting longer for vital
  treatment.

Specific shocking examples found include:

• In one Trust in the North West, there was a ceiling collapse on a
  side ward, water leaking from the ceiling on the top of the maternity
  landing and a lift broke down trapping two nurses inside.
• In one Trust in Yorkshire and the Humber, call bells were broken on a
  ward. Also, FOI data shows that faeces were coming through the floor on
  the ultrasound corridor.
• In one Trust in the West Midlands, a waste pipe above a ward broke, which resulted in waste leaking into the ward area
• In one London Trust, part of the Emergency Department was closed due to a “severe” sewage leak in December 2018.
• In one Trust in the West Midlands, Estates were trying to clear a
  drain, which resulted in dirt/faeces/slime spurting up through a sink.
  This landed on a patient’s bed, and covered the floor and surrounding
  area. There was also a “severe” leak from the roof by the maternity
  unit. Store cupboards were soaked, and water was going into electric
  fittings.
• In one Trust in the South East, a lift which had initially had a
  jammed door, stopped working. Staff and patients were unable to use the
  lift and this impacted on patient care.
• In one London Trust, water poured on to a ward bed from the ceiling and patients had to be moved.
• In one East Midlands Trust, sewage was coming up through the drains
  in bathrooms, water flooded into the ward corridor. Only one shower room
  was able to be used for 19 patients.
• In one East Midlands Trust, due to water leaking from pipes, there
  were delays to patients being operated on – operating time had to be
  reduced and some were cancelled, or re-located to other operating
  theatres.
• In one Trust in the East Midlands, several lifts were out of
  service. There was no access to the Coronary Care Unit for catering
  trolleys, bed or patients. A patient was left on the Clinical Decisions
  Unit in a wheelchair, as they were unable to access CCU for treatment.
• In one Trust in the South, a burst pipe meant no x-rays could be taken.
• In one Trust in the North West, a ceiling panel on a ward collapsed, but fortunately missed the patient.
• In one London Trust, people were trapped in a lift.
• Information received from one Trust in the West Midlands stated that
  there had been “ceiling leakage” and tiles falling off on numerous
  areas on a ward, and that on one occasion the labour ward was very cold,
  and they were unable to keep babies warm.
• In one Trust in the South East, lifts were not in action, making it
  impossible to get immobile patients upstairs – some were coming directly
  from clinic for urgent surgery and appointments had to be cancelled.

Infrastructure problems in hospitals come at a time when the Tories
have failed to provide investment for capital in the NHS, leaving
hospitals with a backlog of maintenance works.

The cost of eradicating ‘high risk’ backlog maintenance rose from
£947 million in 2016/17 to more than £1 billion in 2017/18. The total
backlog increased from £5.5 billion in 2016/17 to almost £6 billion in
2017/18.

Commenting on Labour’s findings, Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, said:

“Years of Tory cuts are pushing hospitals to rack and ruin. From
ceilings collapsing, sewage pipes bursting to central heating faltering,
patient safety and care put at risk.

“The NHS now faces a staggering £6 billion repair bill, £3 billion of which is considered ‘high’ or ‘significant’ risk.

“Patients deserve to be treated in the very best quality health
facilities with the most up to date equipment, and yet the Tories have
utterly failed to invest in the infrastructure capital budgets. Only
Labour will give the NHS the funding it needs.”

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn will today visit Cheshire
East, where the local council recently declared a climate emergency, to
urge people and communities to follow suit and “come together to demand
change and climate justice”.

In a call to action ahead of the visit, the Labour Leader warned that
the climate emergency will not be dealt with “from above by people
sitting in offices in Whitehall and Westminster alone”. The climate
crisis demands a collective response because “individual action is not
enough and the invisible hand of the market will not save us”.

This call for collective action comes after Labour forced Parliament
to declare a climate emergency in May, with the Labour leadership
determined to set off a wave of action from parliaments and government
across the world, as well as local authorities across the United
Kingdom.

The Conservatives lost 19 seats on Cheshire East Council in the local
elections in May, losing control of the flagship council for the first
time. Following Labour’s successful motion in Parliament to declare a
climate emergency on 1st May, Cheshire East Council’s new Labour Leader,
Councillor Sam Corcoran, declared an environment and climate emergency
and committed the council to a target of being carbon neutral by 2025 at
the Council’s first meeting since coming under Labour control.

During his visit to Cheshire, the Labour Leader will also meet
councillors and members of the local community at a community garden,
where he will discuss the environmental and health benefits of gardening
and people growing their own food.

Speaking ahead of the visit, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn MP said:

“I congratulate the newly-elected Labour leadership of Cheshire East
Council for declaring a climate emergency and setting an example for
other communities and councils to follow.

“We have no time to waste. The scale and severity of the climate
emergency requires urgent action in every community across our country
and across the world. We are living in a climate crisis that will spiral
dangerously out of control unless we take rapid and dramatic action.

“Climate justice is about social justice. It is working class
communities in inner-city areas that suffer the worst effects of air
pollution. Around the world, it is the poorest people who are already
paying a heavy price of this crisis while the super-rich and the big
corporations, who are most responsible for emissions, can afford to look
after themselves.

“Local government and local communities are absolutely essential to
confronting the climate emergency. Action from above by people sitting
in offices in Whitehall and Westminster alone will never deliver the
change we need.

“But individual action is also not enough, and the invisible hand of
the market will not save us. We need a collective response that empowers
people. An emergency of this magnitude requires concerted and urgent
action at every level to take on the polluters and secure our planet’s
future.”

Tom Watson MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, responding to news that gambling companies have pledged £60 million to help gambling addicts, said:

“Any rise in the amount spent on research, education and treatment of
problem gambling is welcome but too many gambling companies still shirk
their responsibilities. That is why Labour remains committed to
introducing a mandatory levy.

“The providers of research and treatment of problem gambling need the
guarantees of consistent funding and a proper structure that only comes
with a mandatory levy.”

Responding to The Times front page article, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, said: 

The idea that civil servants should be briefing a newspapers against
an elected politician, against a prospective government, is something
that should be very concerning to all of us.

The Civil Service has to be independent; has to be non-political and
has to be non-judgmental of the politicians they have a duty to serve.
If we were elected to government, we have a very clear framework of
things we want to do in this country on housing, education, health and
the environment and so much more. We would explain those to our
colleagues in the civil service and expect them to carry out those
policies.

That is the way British democracy must work. There must be an
investigation into which senior civil servants are spreading fictitious
information to the press and in the process compromising the integrity
of the Civil Service.