8 May 2017

*Letter accuses BBC of breaching its fair coverage guidelines

*Greens won 40 seats while UKIP won just 1

*Co-leader Jonathan Bartley: “It’s time the BBC recognised the widespread support for our positive vision for Britain”

The Green Party has today (May 7) sent the BBC a letter of complaint over the broadcaster’s coverage of the May 4 local elections results.

The BBC’s guidelines [1] state the Green Party should receive coverage “proportionate to the larger parties” and “more than those parties with less evidence of past or current electoral support or fewer candidates”.

The Greens fielded a record number of candidates in this round of local elections, overtaking UKIP, [2] and 40 Green councillors were elected, compared to UKIP’s one. However, with the exception of a few items, most of the BBC’s coverage failed to report the Green Party’s results, while giving disproportionate coverage to UKIP.

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, said:

“It’s time the BBC recognised the strength of the Green movement and the widespread support for our positive vision for Britain as a confident and caring country. When people see what we stand for, they vote Green.

“While UKIP makes cheap attempts to win headlines with blatantly Islamophobic policies [3], Greens are out making a difference to their local communities and this contrast was made clear in Friday’s election results. The Green Party is making gains across the country – from the Orkney Islands to the Isle of Wight – and it’s only fair we’re given proportionate coverage by our national broadcaster.”

Notes:

1. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/pdfs/2017localelectionguidelines.pdf
2. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ukip-overtaken-by-greens-in-english-council-seats-contested-big-drop_uk_58e68cb2e4b0773c0d3f1e26
3. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ukip-muslim-face-veil_uk_58fdfd2ae4b018a9ce5cdd3b

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The next
Labour government will make parking at NHS England hospitals free for patients,
visitors and NHS staff. Labour created the NHS to be free at the point of use,
so the next Labour government will eradicate the hidden charges of car parking
fees.

Labour
will increase the rate of Insurance Premium Tax to 20% for private healthcare
insurance products to fund the policy, replacing the £162 million England’s
underfunded hospitals currently raise from car parking charges by scrapping the
subsidy for people that can afford it, rather than charging people who can’t.

Last
month, a Freedom of Information request by Unison revealed some hospitals are
charging staff, including nurses struggling with low wages, nearly £100 a month
to park, resulting in reports of nurses having to rush out in between
appointments to move their cars and avoid fines.

All
of Labour’s new spending commitments are fully costed and transparent. This
policy will be paid for by a new charge on private healthcare insurance.

Announcing
the policy, Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said: 

“Labour
will end hospital parking charges, which place an unfair and unnecessary burden
on families, patients and NHS staff. Hospital parking charges are a tax on
serious illnesses.

“Our
hospitals are struggling from under-funding at the hands of Theresa May’s
Conservative government, but the gap should not be filled by charging sick
patients, anxious relatives and already hard-pressed NHS staff for an essential
service.

“Our NHS
needs a Labour government that will stand up for the many, not the few.”

The latest police community surgery for the West End is at Blackness Library later today :

Labour are today (Monday) announcing that a Labour
government will mount a major programme to improve health and wellbeing of
every child in the country. Our ambition is to make the next generation the healthiest the world has ever seen.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary,
will set out the party’s plans to combat health inequalities and end the
scandalous link between deprivation and child health.

Labour will:

·        
Introduce
a new Index of Child Health to measure progress against international standards
and report annually against four key indicators: obesity, dental health, under
5s, and mental health.

·        
Legally
require all Government departments to have a child health strategy to set out
how they will support the UK’s ambition to have the healthiest children in the
world.

·        
Support
school nurses and health visitors to make sure that all children have access to
the healthcare they are entitled to.

·        
Set
up a £250m annual child health fund to support the strategy, by clamping down
on management consultancy costs in the NHS.

·        
Ensure
extra funding for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and support for
counselling in every school.

·        
Ring-fence
the public health budget over the course of the Parliament to allow councils to
invest in leisure activities and health awareness campaigns 

Today (Monday) Labour is outlining the
first stage of its plan focusing specifically on obesity which is costing the
NHS £6bn a year.

Labour pledge to
ban adverts promoting unhealthy food from being broadcast during primetime
television, such as the X Factor, Hollyoaks and Britain’s Got Talent. A ban on pre-watershed junk food advertising would
reduce children’s viewing of junk food adverts by 82%.

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary,
Jonathan Ashworth, will pledge that a Labour Government elected after the
General Election would:

·        
Halve
childhood obesity within ten years and make Britain “the healthiest country in
the world to grow up in.”

·        
Introduce
legislation banning junk food advertising from being broadcast before 9pm

·        
Publish
a new childhood obesity strategy within the first 100 days outlining a roadmap
to halving childhood obesity rates within ten years

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary,
will say:

“The scandal of child ill-health is a long-standing,
growing and urgent challenge. It should be matter of shame that a child’s
health is so closely linked to poverty and that where and in what circumstances
you grow up can dramatically affect your life chances.

“Evidence shows the link between
deprivation and poor health in childhood, so with child poverty on the rise,
the need for action becomes more acute.

“The UK has one of the worst childhood
obesity rates in Western Europe. Tooth decay is the single most common reason
why children aged five to nine require admission to hospital. Around 13% of
boys and 10% of girls aged 11-15 have mental health problems.

“When it comes to our children we should
be ambitious. It’s time we invested properly in the health of the next
generation. That means the sort of bold action we are outlining today to tackle
obesity and invest in mental health provision.

Labour will put children at the heart our
health strategy and put measures in place to make Britain’s children the healthiest
in the world.”