Labour

Debbie Abrahams MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, commented on the Prime Minister’s refusal to back Labour’s call for a pause to Universal Credit on Marr saying;

“More empty words will do nothing for those being pushed into poverty by the Government’s flagship social security programme.

“The six week wait for payment of Universal Credit is a punitive policy introduced by this Government, it can be changed.

“I wrote to the Secretary of State calling for a pause to Universal Credit roll out weeks ago, and yet nothing has been done.

“Months have passed since Mrs May claimed she would help those struggling to get by. We are yet to see anything that amounts to action to support the 13 million people living in poverty in the UK.”

John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, responding to the Tories’ announcement to extend the Help to Buy scheme, said:

“This is yet another policy from the Tories that will only help the few, not the many. 

“Britain is suffering from a housing crisis, with home ownership at a 30-year low and 900,000 fewer under 45s now owning a home since 2010.

“Young people held back by a broken housing market don’t need Theresa May’s gimmicks but the mass building programme of genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy that Labour put forward in our manifesto.”

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, responding to the Tories’ announcement on freezing tuition fees, said:

“The fact Theresa May thinks she can win over young people by pledging to freeze tuition fees only weeks after increasing them to £9,250 shows just how out of touch she is.

“Another commission to look at tuition fees is a desperate attempt by the Tories to kick the issue into the long grass because they have no plans for young people and no ideas for our country. They are yesterday’s party.

“The next Labour government will scrap tuition fees entirely and introduce a National Education Service for lifelong learning for the many not the few. “

Sue Hayman MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, commenting on the announcement that the government intends to bring forward legislation to increase maximum sentencing for animal cruelty cases, said:

“I am pleased that the Government has decided to follow Labour’s manifesto commitment to increase maximum sentencing for the worst cases of animal cruelty.

“We know that judges have complained for some time that they want to hand down tougher sentences to those guilty of abusing animals. The current six-month maximum sentence is simply inadequate for the severity of some of these terrible crimes.

“While this is a step in the right direction from this Conservative government, they still have a long way to go to prove their credibility on animal welfare following Theresa May’s declared support for fox hunting and their recent shocking and poorly regulated roll out of the badger cull.

“We will be monitoring the Government closely to make sure they implement this policy having previously announced and failed to deliver on a ban on ivory trading and wild animals in circuses.”

Returning from a day of talks in Northern Ireland with Union leaders, management and politicians about the Bombardier/Boeing tariff crisis, Barry Gardiner MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, said:

“The government must wake up to the fact that this is a major crisis for Northern Ireland. Bombardier represents 40 per cent of all the GDP produced by the private sector in Northern Ireland; these 4,000 jobs are the economic bedrock for so many families and communities. Yet the company is now facing a calculated and cynical attempt from Boeing to eliminate a competitor.

“Today it was made abundantly clear that for months civil servants and politicians in Northern Ireland were explaining their case to Tory ministers too pre-occupied with a post Brexit U.S. trade deal to listen, and who chose to swallow the American line that Bombardier were at fault and that Boeing were willing to negotiate when they clearly were not.

“Theresa May’s government must now summon Boeing’s Global Chief, Dennis Muilenburg, to an urgent summit and seek a meeting with the US government to get sensible negotiations back on track and this vicious and baseless case taken off the table.”