At a media
launch in London today, Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, Jonathan
Ashworth, Shadow Health Secretary and Angela Rayner, Shadow Education
Secretary, turned the spotlight on public services, arguing that this election
is vital for the future of the NHS and our schools.
Labour has
published research highlighting the threat to our schools and hospitals posed
by five more years of the Conservatives and have committed the party to
reversing years of Tory neglect.
New
analysis of the Tory threat has revealed that if the current rate of
deterioration under the Tories continues, by 2022 our health and education
services could be facing huge problems. It could mean:
In a Tory
NHS and social care system:
- 5.5 million people on waiting
lists in England, 1.8 million more than at present. - Almost 1.5 million older and
vulnerable people with unmet social care needs.
In a Tory
education system:
- 650,000 pupils crammed into
primary classes of over 30. - Families left almost £450 worse
off per child as a result of the Tories’ plan to scrap free school meals for
1.7 million children.
The choice
at the election is stark. The Tories have no plan to properly fund our public
services, pushing them further into crisis. Labour will take a different.
approach, we will rebuild our public services for the many by modest tax rises
for companies and the richest 5 per cent.
Labour will
build an NHS and social care system for the many:
- Labour will invest £37 billion
in our NHS and take one million people off the waiting list by the end of the
next Parliament. - Labour will invest £8 billion
in social care over the course of the next Parliament and lay the foundations
of a National Care Service to integrate health and social care.
Labour will
build an education system for the many:
- Labour will cap class sizes at
30 for 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds. - Labour will provide free school
meals to all primary school children by removing VAT exemption on private
school fees.
Jeremy
Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:
“The
futures of our NHS and schools are at stake in this election.
“Over the
last seven years the Tories have starved the public services we rely on of
resources, running them down and pushing them into disrepair.
“Patients
are suffering ever longer waits and overcrowded wards; those who need care have
been left without it. Children are crammed into overcrowded and crumbling
classrooms. It has to change.
“Labour
will invest in our people, schools and hospitals. We will cut class sizes, take
a million people off the NHS waiting list and ensure people get the care they
deserve.
“By
contrast another five years of the Tories would be disastrous for our public
services. At the rate we’re going we could see 5.5 million people on the
English waiting list and 1.5 million older people with unmet care needs. And
young people and their families face the prospect of more overcrowding in
schools and having to pick up the bill for the Tories’ unfair plan to scrap
free school meals for hundreds of thousands of children.
“On June 8th there’s only one party that will improve
our public services for the many not the few, that’s the Labour Party.”
Notes to editors:
- Please find link to Labour’s full analysis on threat to our schools and hospitals posed by five more years of the Conservatives: http://www.labour.org.uk/atrisk
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