A fire is seen in an MTR train in Hong Kong on Feb 10, 2017. [Photo from Facebook] A fire broke out on Friday inside a Hong Kong underground train near a busy station, with at least 17 people being injured and a man being detained after claiming … read more
Nia Griffith MP, Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary, commenting on the decision to close down The Iraq Historic Allegations Team, said:
“I welcome today’s announcement that the stress and worry that this inquiry has caused to service personnel and veterans will soon be brought to an end.
“I completely condemn the spurious and untrue allegations that have been levelled against service members and veterans. Labour has long said that anyone facing investigation should be properly supported by the Government.
“It is now important that the inquiry’s work is completed promptly and properly in order to eliminate any risk of these vexatious claims arising again in future.”
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read moreEmily Thornberry, Shadow Foreign Secretary, responding to today’s revelations regarding arms exports to Saudi Arabia, said:
“We have discovered today that, even after the bombing of the funeral hall in Sana’a and the concerns of Liam Fox’s department about the risk that British weapons were being used in breach of International Humanitarian Law, Boris Johnson gave his personal reassurance that the Saudi-led coalition was improving its targeting processes and ensuring that any incidents where non-military targets had been bombed were being properly investigated.
“According to the independent Yemen Data Project, in the 55 days between Boris Johnson writing his letter and the end of 2016, Saudi forces bombed 60 residential sites in Yemen, including houses, markets and refugee camps. At this time of heightening humanitarian crisis, they bombed 46 sites of economic infrastructure, including farms, water tanks and food trucks, and 48 sites of physical infrastructure, including roads, bridges and ports. They also managed to bomb three schools and a university. Not a single one of these 160 incidents has yet been investigated by the Saudi authorities. If this is what Boris Johnson calls the Saudis ‘improving processes and…taking action to address failures’, then I would sorely hate to see the opposite.
“It should not be left to the courts to rule whether the export licences for these arms sales should have been granted. It should be for this Government to show some long-overdue caution and concern about the way the Saudi campaign is being conducted, the devastating humanitarian crisis that campaign is helping to cause, and the blatant failure to ensure any proper, independent investigation of these alleged crimes against international law.”
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10 February 2017
* Greens condemn Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for not publishing employment status law review for more than a year
* Jonathan Bartley, Green co-leader: “As Tory ministers sat on the review’s findings workers everywhere have been left to fend for themselves”
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has finally published a review into employment status law [1] which was launched and then shelved under the Coalition Government.
The publication, more than two years after the review’s launch in October 2014, and more than 13 months after the report was seemingly ready for publication in December 2015, came after repeated calls from Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley for the Government to stop “sitting on the findings” [2].
The report’s belated publication coincides with a court ruling today (February 10) which found a plumber working on a self-employed contract is in fact entitled to the rights of a worker [3].
Bartley wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister in October last year [2] calling for the review to be published after a similar ruling found two Uber drivers were not self-employed but entitled to workers’ rights.
Bartley said:
“It is shameful that Tory ministers have sat on the findings of the Coalition’s review into employment status. As they did so workers everywhere have been living in increasing insecurity and left to fend for themselves.
“Without legislation which adequately safeguards their rights these workers have been badly let down and it is clear this review should have been published at the earliest opportunity – in 2015.
“More and more court rulings are showing what can be achieved when people take control and stand up against exploitation and demonstrating how woefully insufficient our employment status law it is for dealing with modern employment practices.
“It is welcome that these issues are now being addressed by the ongoing review led by Matthew Taylor of the RSA, but the substantial and important findings of the report just published should have been put in the public domain long before now, so as to inform debate and help formulate ideas for law reform.”
Notes:
Ian Lavery and Andrew Gwynne are appointed joint National Elections and Campaign Coordinators for the Labour Party.Jon Trickett is appointed Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and will remain Shadow Lord President of the Council.Ends read more