The report on the sustainable use of pesticides Directive adopted today by the Commission takes stock of progress made by the EU Member States in applying measures to reduce the risks and impacts of pesticides. It covers a wide range … read more
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to Jeremy Hunt’s claim in the House of Commons that the NHS pay cap has been lifted, said:
“The Secretary of State tells the Commons the NHS pay cap’s been lifted but he cannot say whether this is going to come from existing budgets or not. It looks like hospitals will be forced to cut other services to find the funds.
“Jeremy Hunt is trying to face both ways on NHS pay and it just means even more uncertainty. While the Government dithers, staff continue to leave the NHS and patients continue to be at risk from short staffed services.
“There has still been no confirmation of any of this from the Treasury. The Government need to immediately confirm that extra funding will be provided to lift the NHS pay cap so that all staff can benefit from a long overdue pay rise.”
Ends
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10 October 2017
*Only a third of councillors in England are women
*Conference to close with challenge to Green Party members
*Deputy leader Amelia Womack: “We will be fighting to get Green voices into positions where they can be heard the loudest, challenging the Conservatives and holding Labour to account”
The Green Party will announce new initiatives to ensure more women stand for council seats in the May 2018 local elections.
Deputy leader Amelia Womack will close the party’s autumn conference today [1] with a rallying cry for a record number of women to stand as Green Party candidates next year.
The call follows research published in August showing 12,000 more women councillors are needed to close the gender gap on councils in England [2]. Only 33 per cent of councillors and 17 per cent of council leaders are women.
Womack will pledge to visit and campaign with all-female fields of candidates and mentor young women standing for election for the first time.
Womack is expected to say:
“Politics has changed me and changed my life for the better, and I want it to help other women find their power in society too. In May next year we will be contesting hundreds and hundreds of seats on councils across England, from Knowsley to Norwich and Worcester to West Dorset. We will be fighting to get Green voices into positions where they can be heard the loudest, challenging the Conservatives and holding Labour to account.
“Today I want to issue a challenge. I don’t want us to just contest more seats than ever before, I want more women to contest those seats than ever before. England needs 12,000 more women to be elected onto councils to close this appalling gender gap.
“We’ve won the vote for women, but now we need to vote for women. We can do so much better than this.”
Notes:
John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on the OBR’s Forecast evaluation report out today, said:
“Today’s report by the OBR is a damning indictment of the last seven years of Tory economic failure. We need no more proof that their austerity approach has failed to boost living standards or improve the long-term potential of the UK economy.
“Next month’s Budget cannot be another exercise in kicking the can down the road by Philip Hammond, we need to see substantial action.
“On a day when figures on construction published by the ONS show warning signs ahead for our economy, the mounting evidence for a change of direction from the Chancellor couldn’t be clearer.
“This OBR report supports Labour’s argument that weak investment is at the centre of our economy’s problems and has damaged productivity growth.
“The next Labour government will provide the proper investment our country needs. Our industrial strategy, National Transformation Fund and £10ph Real Living Wage stand in stark contrast to the Tories’ inactivity, and will help Labour build a high wage, high skill economy for the many not the few.”
read moreeu-LISA regulation 10/10/2017 EDPS Opinion on the proposal for a Regulation on eu-LISA. 1st Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol 09/10/2017 On 9 October, the EDPS Giovanni Buttarelli has been invited to appear before the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on … read more