Labour

Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health, commenting on the Government’s record on Mental Health, following Jeremy Hunt’s appearance on the Andrew Marr show, said:

“Jeremy Hunt’s remarks bear no resemblance to the reality of our mental health services; the Tory Government’s record on mental health has been dismal. 

“Mental health nurse numbers have fallen, more than a quarter of CCGs underspent their mental health budgets for 2016/17 and some children are waiting as long as eighteen months to be treated.

“The Tories will not be taken seriously on mental health unless they invest more in services and ring-fence budgets, as Labour pledged to do at the General Election.”

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, responding to reports that PRO companies have paid little or no tax, said:

“It has been clear for some time that PFI is an inefficient and opaque system for delivering public services. PFI companies are profiting at the expense of our public services: if they are also avoiding their tax while doing so, the Government must immediately take action to end this scandal by banning shares in PFI companies being bought up by corporations based in tax havens.

“Labour under Jeremy Corbyn will end the PFI racket, bringing existing contracts back in-house, and delivering more money into our public services more accountably, transparently and efficiently.”

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, responding to the EU investigation into the UK’s “controlled foreign company” schemes, said:

“The new EU investigation into the controlled foreign company tax dodge opened up by the Conservatives vindicates Labour’s demands for its closure and blows Tory claims to be targeting tax avoidance out of the water.

“Far from clamping down on tax dodgers, Conservative-led governments have made it easier for tax avoiders to duck their obligations to society and not pay their fair share of tax.

“Labour’s election manifesto demanded the closure of the controlled foreign company loophole and only Labour will take the tough action needed to end the scourge of tax avoidance and build an economy for the many, not the few.”

Richard Burgon MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, commenting on Ministry of Justice data which reveals a record number of assaults in prisons, said: 

“Once again we see how Conservatives’ cuts are creating a crisis in our prisons. Every few months we get a new record for the number of assaults as the Government’s cutting of prisons budgets and staff bites. It is scandalous that we now have an assault every 20 minutes in our prisons.

“Government policies that have led to severe overcrowding and cutting of more than 6,000 prison officers are squarely to blame for this situation. Yet one in three prisons suffered further cuts in officer numbers in the first six months of this year alone.

“When prisoners can’t be let out of their cells for 23 hours a day due to soaring violence and under-staffing, it makes a mockery of the Government’s claims that it is turning prisons into places of education and reform.” 

Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, speaking in response to the release of Home office data, said:

“This serious discrimination is widespread. It is unacceptable that the Home Office’s own report states that the level of discrimination is little changed from previous years.

“The Prime Minister says she wants to tackle burning injustices. But this Tory Government is presiding over a policing system which still discriminates against black people. Warm words are not enough. It is long past time that the government acted to address these unacceptable disparities.”