Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, responding to the latest NHS performance data, said:

“While the Health Secretary plays Tory leadership games, patients continue to suffer deteriorating care.

“Patients will find it staggering that this summer A&E
performance so far has actually been worse than it was in the run up to
Christmas and those stranded on trolleys in overcrowded hospitals is up
376% compared to last June.

“What’s more, the waiting list for treatment is at a record high with
patients waiting longer in pain and distress for treatment.

“This is an NHS in a year round crisis thanks to years of cutbacks
and understaffing. The Health Secretary must park his obsession with
gimmicks, gizmos and gadgets and get a grip of the plummeting standards
of patient care happening on his watch.”

Marsha de Cordova MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Disabled People, commenting on the announced review of social security for the terminally ill, said:

“It is welcome the Tories are finally acknowledging that their
‘six-month rule’ is cruel, arbitrary and outdated, but we do not need a
review to know it should be scrapped. The longer the government delays,
the more needless suffering and anxiety is inflicted on ill and disabled
people with terminal illnesses.

“Shamefully, between 2013 and 2018, 17,000 terminally ill people died
while waiting for a decision on their Personal Independence Payment
claims. This means people spent their last days  waiting for the outcome
of a cruel assessment without the financial support they needed.

“The government must now adopt a definition of terminal illness based
on sound clinical judgements and scrap all unnecessary assessments for
terminally ill people.”

Imran Hussain MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Minister, responding to the Prison Inspector’s report into HMP Berwyn, said:

“These problems are a direct consequence of brutal staff and budget cuts made by the Tories and, in Coalition, by the Lib Dems.

“Sadly, there are many other prisons also suffering from this
staffing crisis. The number of frontline prison officers who have
resigned has more than tripled since the Coalition government began, and
that’s left our prison staff, prisoners and the public vulnerable.

“This crisis is the government’s fault, and it must end it fast. We
need a retention strategy to end the exodus of experienced staff in our
prisons. That’s the only way to make sure everyone is safe. You can’t
keep people safe on the cheap.”

A Labour Party spokesperson, responding to BBC Panorama’s programme, said:

“We completely reject any claim that Labour is antisemitic. We stand
in solidarity with Jewish people, and we’re taking decisive action to
root out antisemitism from our movement and society.

“The Panorama programme was not a fair or balanced investigation. It
was a seriously inaccurate, politically one-sided polemic, which
breached basic journalistic standards, invented quotes and edited emails
to change their meaning. It was an overtly biased intervention by the
BBC in party political controversy.

“An honest investigation into antisemitism in Labour and wider
society is in the public interest. The Panorama team instead
pre-determined an answer to the question posed by the programme’s title.

“No proper and serious attempt was made to understand our current
procedures for dealing with antisemitism, which is clearly essential to
reach a fair and balanced judgement. And Panorama distorted and
manipulated the truth and misrepresented evidence to present a biased
and selective account.

“We complained in advance to the BBC over the way the programme was
put together and its choice of a presenter who has expressed overt
personal and political hostility to Jeremy Corbyn’s politics. We will be
pursuing complaints at every level.

“The Labour Party will fully investigate any complaints concerning
the antisemitic incidents reported by party members in interviews in the
programme.

“Labour stands in solidarity with Jewish people and is fully
committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish
community and its organisations.

“Despite claims made in the programme, Labour is taking decisive
action against antisemitism. Since Jennie Formby became General
Secretary the rate at which antisemitism cases have been dealt with has
increased more than four-fold.

“We will build on the improvements to our procedures made under
Jennie Formby, and continue to act against this repugnant form of
racism.”

John McDonnell MP today (Wednesday 10 July)
called for radical reform of global institutions, so that they can
respond effectively to climate change, inequality and the displacement
of people.

The Shadow Chancellor was speaking ahead of the Labour Party hosting
the International Social Forum, a conference of progressive political
leaders, campaigners and economists to discuss far reaching
institutional reforms.

McDonnell and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will speak at the event this weekend, at SOAS, University of London.

This two-day conference is part of internationalising Labour’s
programme to harness the full might of the Treasury in government to
tackle climate change, end austerity and erode sky-high inequality.

John McDonnell MP said:

“The world is facing a range of challenges that require transnational action and global solutions.

“The existing global institutions are proving to be incapable of
responding effectively to the existential threat of climate change, the
increasingly unaccountable power of multinationals, and the large-scale
displacement of people.

“Labour has convened an international social forum bringing together
politicians, economists and social movement leaders from across the
world to launch a new dialogue on the reform of the international
institutional architecture needed to tackle the global challenges of the
twenty first century.”

Ends

Notes for news editors

In 2017 speech at the United Nations, Geneva, Jeremy Corbyn MP set
out four main threats faced by humanity: the concentration of wealth and
power in a small group, exacerbated by tax avoidance; climate change;
lack of global cooperation on the refugee crisis; and  the “bomb first,
think later” approach to conflict resolution.

Speakers:

• John McDonnell MP (Saturday 0945), Jeremy Corbyn MP, leader of the Labour Party (Sunday 1630).
• The Labour leader and Shadow Chancellor will also share a platform in the closing plenary – (Sunday 17.30pm)
• Other speakers include: the former president of Brazil Dilma
  Rousseff, Ann Pettifor, co-founder of the Jubilee 2000 campaign, and
  Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University
  (JNU) in Delhi.

Also speaking, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, Tina
Ngata, an indigenous New Zealand campaigner on climate change, Asad
Rehman, the executive director of War on Want, Fiona Tregenna, Professor
of Economics at the University of Johannesburg and Richard
Kozul-Wright, the director of the division on globalisation and
development strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development.