Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to reports that EU nationals living in the UK were sent deportation letters in error, said:

“EU
nationals have already been made to feel like a bargaining chip in Brexit
negotiations, so this error will no doubt cause a lot of anxiety.
 
“As this government is prone to U-turns the only assurance worth anything to
those affected is official documentation of their settled status.  If it
is true that Theresa May intends to grant those EU citizens currently living in
the UK the right to remain, they should simply be issued this now. Apparently
official documents from the Home Office are easy enough to send!”

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education
Secretary, responding to the publication of GCSE results
today, said:

“A heartfelt congratulations to everyone receiving
their GCSE results today. We pay tribute to pupils, parents and teachers for
the crucial role they have played in achieving these fantastic results.

“As young people enter a new period in their lives,
whether in further study or work, it’s incredibly important that they receive
as much support as possible.

“Unfortunately the Government’s unnecessary
tinkering with grades have meant that there are many parents and employers who
are still struggling to understand what the results in maths and English
actually mean.

“Tory failure to properly explain the changes has
created confusion that has casted a shadow on a day that should be reserved for
celebration and young people considering the next step they will take in their
education.

“A Labour Government would restore the Education
Maintenance Allowance for young people entering Further Education, as well as
providing fit for purpose careers advice and bolstering apprenticeships.”

Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow
Transport Secretary,
responding to Transport Secretary Chris Grayling’s Yorkshire Post article on
transport in the North, said:

“Grayling’s decision to wash his
hands of the North’s transport problems is a huge insult to commuters and
businesses.

“It’s true that the North can play
a larger role in determining and delivering its own transport priorities, but
only if it’s backed with funding from central government – an unlikely prospect
while Chris Grayling holds the purse strings.

“The Tories have a track record of
underinvestment and broken promises. London receives £1500 per person more in
transport spending than the North, but far from addressing this disparity the
Tories are making it worse by scrapping upgrades to the TransPennine
route.  

“Many people will be furious at
being told they should ‘take control’ whilst the government pulls the plug on
hundreds of millions of pounds worth of improvements to the region’s rail links
and presides over huge inequalities in transport spending between the North and
South.

“The North needs its fair share of
investment, not words of encouragement from Chris Grayling.

“That is why Labour has pledged to
help transform the economies of the North, underpinned by a £10bn commitment
for Crossrail for the North.”

Ends

New
analysis by Labour has revealed that almost a million (972,000) households in
England are paying more than a third of their incomes in mortgage costs – an
internationally recognised standard of housing affordability – despite record
low interest rates.

In
response, Labour has pledged to provide 100,000 new affordable FirstBuy homes
for first-time buyers over its first five years in government – a new class of
housing sold at prices set so that mortgage costs are affordable to households
on local average incomes.

Labour’s
new analysis drawn from the official English Housing Survey comes after
official figures earlier in the year revealed that the number of households
headed by someone aged under 45 who owns their own home has fallen by an
astonishing 900,000 since 2010 to just 44 per cent.

Current
Conservative policies to help first-time buyers are failing, with no fresh
ideas and Ministers stalling on plans they’ve previously announced:

–      
Almost
three years after announcing the Government’s flagship new ‘starter
homes’  not a single one has been built

–      
Help
to Buy has been heavily criticised for not focusing on first-time buyers on
ordinary incomes, with the majority of recipients saying they could have bought
a property anyway

Statistics
released earlier this year revealed that the level of homeownership in Britain
has now fallen to a 30-year low.

Labour’s
Shadow Secretary of State for Housing John Healey MP said:

“The cost
of the housing crisis means that young people looking to buy a home of their
own are being locked out of the housing market.

“After
seven years of failure, the Conservatives have no plan to fix the housing
crisis. Homeownership has hit a 30-year low and the number of under-45s who own
their own home has fallen by over 900,000.

“Labour
would bring in a big New Deal for first time buyers including ‘first dibs’ on
new homes built in the local area and 100,000 new discount FirstBuy Homes which
are priced at a level linked to local average incomes. Labour offers help to
the many aspiring first-time buyers on ordinary incomes and hope that things
can change.”

Keir Starmer MP, Labour’s Shadow
Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, commenting on the Government’s
latest Brexit policy paper on enforcement and dispute resolution, said:

“Any
final deal with the EU that protects jobs and the economy will require an
effective and robust dispute resolution mechanism. This will inevitably involve
some form of independent court.

“The
Prime Minister’s ideological insistence that there can be no future role
whatsoever for the ECJ or any similar court-like body risks preventing the deal
Britain needs. It has already held back a sensible and early agreement on
issues such as Euratom and EU citizens.

“But the
repeated reference to ending the “direct jurisdiction” of the ECJ is
potentially significant. This appears to contradict the red line laid out in
the Prime Minister’s Lancaster House speech and the government’s white paper,
which stated there could be no future role of the ECJ and that all laws will be
interpreted by judges in this country.”