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Sturgeon must set out next steps of her separation plan

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26 Apr 2017

Ruth1

Nicola Sturgeon has a duty to spell out her so-called ‘next steps’ on independence before people vote on June 8, the Scottish Conservatives have said today.

It comes after the First Minister responded to a slump in support for separation this week by saying she would not publish her proposals before the election.

This is despite promising before the Easter break that she would set these plans out as soon as the Scottish Parliament returned.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said:

“The First Minister could not have been clearer last month – she told the people of Scotland she would set out her next steps on her unwanted referendum plan after Easter and keep us all informed.

“Yet now that a General Election has been called she has gone back on her word.

“The reason is obvious: as always with the SNP they desperately try to play down independence in an election campaign because they know it’s unpopular.

“Her claim earlier this week that her campaign isn’t about independence is a joke. But her refusal to set out her position clearly before we vote is deadly serious.

“The Prime Minister and I have set our own position on this matter very clearly and people can have their say on our judgement on June 8.

“How can it be right that people should vote on June 8 without a clue what the First Minister plans to say on the single biggest issue facing Scotland come June 9.

“Don’t we all have a right to know? Nicola Sturgeon has a duty to set out her position as promised so we can all take a view.

“The position of the Scottish Conservatives is crystal clear.

“A second referendum isn’t needed and it isn’t wanted. We will continue to stand up against the SNP’s plans – which is why more and more people are turning to us at this election.”

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Scottish Conservatives

Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Health Secretary, speech to Unison’s conference

**Check against delivery**

It is my pleasure to be here. As a Labour MP, a trade union member. As a member of your shadow Cabinet and – I hope – as the next Labour Secretary of State for Health.

And it is a pleasure to be here with UNISON a great trade union led by one of the great General Secretaries Dave Prentis. I congratulate all of you for your campaign on public services and the work of public servants.

Dave spoke with great eloquence earlier this week.

And when Dave said that funding’s becoming scarcer – he was right.

When Dave said you’re all asked to do more with less – he was right

And when Dave said you cannot trust the Tories with the National Health Service – he was right.

And that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning.

But my first duty this morning on behalf of the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn is to say thank you to this union and your members and indeed all who work in the NHS.

So to the nurses, the midwives and the health care assistants – we say thank you

And because we don’t always remember them but I’ve seen for myself the difference you make when a few years ago I had the honour of shadowing your stewards on facility time at Lewisham hospital. To all your stewards representing you in hospitals we say thank you.

To the porters, the cleaners and the IT administrators – we say thank you

To the medical secretaries, therapists, paramedics and managers – we say thank you too.

For your care, your dedication, your self-sacrifice, every day, your extraordinary efforts, literally often the difference between life and death.

Friends, we are here today. In our various vocations and in this union because we believe in something bigger than ourselves, because we are driven by solidarity not selfishness and we understand, and indeed value the ethos of public service. An ethos that not only runs deep in our history as a trade union movement but defines the character of our country as well.

Because when you look at every stage of life, whether we call it cradle to the grave – or as Shakespeare wrote of the 7 ages of man.

At every stage public servants have been there for us, have cared for us, have nurtured us and made us all what we are today.

Each and every one of them transforming hopelessness into hope.

From the midwives and clinicians who bring us into the world, the teachers who inspire us, the community workers improving our quality of life, to our care workers who look after our frail, weak and vulnerable.

All represented across this union, all everyday showing the value of public services at the heart of a civilized society

And nowhere is that clearer, than in the NHS

A National Health Service is truly visionary – a central part of the values we share as a society.

So today in the run up to this General Election I want to talk to you about the attack on our NHS and on our values by this Conservative Government.

And in this campaign let’s be resolute to not let any Tory run away from their record on the NHS.

Theresa May can insist problems with the NHS are nothing more than a ‘small number of incidents’ but she can’t deny what we see with our eyes to be happening.

The winter crisis we’ve just been through, with ambulances backed up outside of hospitals, patients on trolleys in corridors, operations cancelled, elderly people trapped in beds with nowhere to go.

Ever lengthening queues of the sick and elderly across the land.

Nearly 4 million people waiting for an operation;

Over 200,000 people waiting for four hours of more in A&E in February alone;

The number of people waiting for 12 hours or more on trolleys doubled in a year. Sometimes patients wait over 30 hours on a trolley.

Call it a ‘humanitarian crisis’ as the Red Cross did.

Call it the NHS on a ‘burning platform’ as the CQC Chief Executive did

Call it an ‘existential crisis’ as Sir Robert Francis did

I simply call it what it is – this is a Tory NHS crisis and that’s why the future of the NHS is at stake in this general election.

We have a Prime Minister who even yesterday still refuses to see the truth that the NHS is overstretched, understaffed and under threat.

We have a Prime Minister imposing on the NHS the largest financial squeeze in history.

Who allows hospital trusts to fall into deficit like never before.

We have a Prime Minister who next year will be cutting NHS spending per head.

Yesterday we heard that the NHS has a backlog of £5 billion in repairs for crumbling hospitals and out of date equipment.

They expect the NHS to find £22 billion of so called efficiency savings which no one believes can be found without cutting frontline care.

A health system buckling under the strain of huge financial and operational pressures.

And what does it tell you about the state of 21st century Britain under these Conservatives that the number of hospital beds take by patients being treated for malnutrition – yes malnutrition – has trebled in recent years.

Malnutrition on the rise in Tory Britain; isn’t that a national disgrace; isn’t that a badge of shame.

And because of the pressures on beds in the last few years a million patients have been discharged in the middle of the night.

And the numbers of elderly and vulnerable people trapped in hospital with nowhere to go at record levels.

And why? Because we have a care system that has been savaged by 7 years of spending cuts. We have a care system on the brink of tipping point.

We have over a million of the most elderly and vulnerable people denied the care they deserve. Some maybe our own grandparents or parents, our own relatives.

And yet we have a Prime Minister who walks by on the other side, refuses to face up to the problems and says to councils in the most deprived parts of the country: you can raise your council tax even though it will go nowhere near meeting your social care needs.

Unless of course it happens to be Surrey County Council where you can get a special secret sweetheart deal with Downing Street.

Well I tell you something, under Labour these dodgy deals that demean Downing Street will be gone. We’ll bring back honour and integrity to policy and decision making in No 10. No more special access and mates’ rates but fairness instead for all.

And while this Prime Minister ignores the social care needs of the many she can find millions to build new grammar schools,

She can find billions to cuts taxes for the biggest corporations, but she won’t recognise the demands of the elderly or treatment requirements of the sick.

So let us be absolutely clear – what prevents this Prime Minister from acting is not the financial constraints of the economy but the dogmatic constraints of her ideology.

Things are so bad that even Andrew Lansley – remember him – even Andrew Lansley has complained it isn’t getting the money it needs.

Talking of Lord Lansley, never forget that the priority of these Conservatives – including Theresa May – was always a top down reorganization in the Health and Social Care Act whose very aim was to drive our NHS into the realms of privatisation; 

And I can tell you today we will not yield, we will not buckle.

Labour will defend the National Health Service and axe that Health and Social Care legislation that allows the NHS to be fragmented and sold off.

Privatisation of the NHS will come to an end.

And I tell you what else we will do:

We will reinstate the Secretary of State’s responsibilities. We will reinstate the NHS – publicly funded, publicly administered and yes publicly provided.

And I want our NHS staff and patients to be given an actual real genuine voice in the running of our NHS too.

So I can announce we will also put healthcare professionals, staff and patients on the Board of any organisation providing NHS care.  

And yes this will apply to all private companies currently providing services or we will insist they hand back their contracts.  

But we will go further than that too and insist that Board level representation of professionals, staff and patients is on every organisation providing NHS care – including Clinical Commissioning Groups and all NHS Trusts.  

So Labour will deliver staff reps on boards with voting rights at the heart of our NHS.

Better services

Over this campaign Labour will be setting out our plans to deliver the improvements that patients need.

We want to see hospitals properly staffed, waiting times coming down and emergency care available to those who need it, operating to the standards that patients expect.

Under the Conservatives the 18 week target has been dumped for what they call non-urgent operations.

To paraphrase a famous pre-election speech from time gone by: I warn you that if the Tories win again not to get old, not to get sick.

I warn you that the real cost of the Tories winning again will be felt in longer waiting times, and people spending longer in pain and discomfort for knee replacements and hip replacements.

Let’s be clear what’s happening, step by step, bit by bit.

The NHS under Tories is being pushed back to the bad old days and it will fall to Labour to save the NHS like we have done throughout our history.

So we confirm our commitment to hitting the targets for A&E,

We’ll do so by investing in our NHS, in our community services, and renewing the focus on keeping people well and out of hospital, delivering care closer to home at the time when people need it.

Because those who have given so much all their life deserve security and dignity in retirement we’ll integrate health and social care

And when it comes to the planning and delivery of local services we will always ask what is in the interest of local needs not what is in the interests of filling financial holes.

And we will deliver long overdue improvements to mental health care as well.

We know that mental ill health is the leading cause of sickness absence at work, costing the economy £105bn every year.

And that one in four of us in this room will experience a mental health problem this year.

And yet all we get from Theresa May is warm words and empty promises, but no real meaningful action.

Unlike the Tories, Labour will tackle the underfunded and understaffed mental health system.

We want to see mental health services properly resourced and focused on prevention, rather than just asking the NHS to intervene once a person is already in crisis.

We will give our mental health services the money they desperately need to look after us all, because there can be no health without mental health.

The next Labour government will deliver true parity of esteem between mental and physical health.

We won’t just talk about equality – we will deliver it.

And if we are to deliver these improvements for Britain’s patients, then our starting point will be delivering improvements for our health and care workforce.

Standing up for staff

So today I want to set out Labour’s plans for the staff of our NHS and social care system.

You are the lifeblood of the NHS. You have committed your working lives to caring for others in our times of need.

You deserve to be cared for yourselves, but for too long this Government has taken you for granted.

A pay freeze has seen NHS wages fall 14% below inflation.

Cut backs to training places have meant units are even more short-staffed.

And now Brexit threatens the ability of our NHS to recruit from abroad, and threatens thousands of good, kind European staff who are working in our country already.

So let me make it clear, Labour would make the NHS a priority in the Brexit negotiations, and as Keir Starmer said yesterday we would give an immediate NHS guarantee to all European NHS staff.

Let us send a clear message to the thousands of NHS and social care staff from the EU. You are welcome, needed and your rights will be guaranteed in the UK under a Labour government

You know because you see it every day that staff are being forced by this Government to do more and more with less and less

Giving ever more of your free time to keep the service running – working through your breaks and often long past the end of your shift.

It’s why I say that our NHS staff are the pride of Britain.

Yet you are ignored, insulted, undervalued, overworked and underpaid by this Tory government.

Well not any more. Enough is enough.

NHS staff have been taken for granted for too long by the Conservative Government.

Cuts to pay and training mean hard working staff are being forced from NHS professions and young people are being put off before they have even started.

What is bad for NHS staff is bad for patients too. Short staffing means reduced services and a threat to patient safety.

So I can announce a Labour Government will step in with a long term plan for our NHS which gives NHS staff the support they need to do the best possible job for patients.

NHS staff deserve to be rewarded for the complex, difficult and highly specialized professional work that they do.

So I can confirm today that a Labour government will scrap the pay cap, put pay decisions back into the hands of the independent pay review body and give our NHS workers the pay they deserve.

It’s fair to staff and it’s in the interest of patients too.

And it’s also in the interests of patients that we invest in the potential of our staff.

My long term ambition is for our NHS staff to have the best trained staff in the world ready to deal with whatever they face in the years to come.

As a first step that means giving those who want to enter nursing, midwifery and allied health profession a step up, not kick the ladder away.

So let me commit here today that we will re-introduce bursaries. We will reinstate funding for health related degrees so that people who want to get into health professions – whether they are young people starting out or older students who want a new career after starting a family – don’t feel put off by financial considerations.

Safe Staffing

I know that whenever we need the NHS it’s there for all of us and our families. But all of us are naturally anxious when our loved ones or ourselves need to spend time in hospital.

Quite simply Labour will never compromise on patient safety.

After seven years of Tory mismanagement our health services dangerously understaffed.

We are thousands short on the numbers of nurses, midwives, and paramedics that we need.

And yet the attitude of this Prime Minister remains blinkered in the extreme. Her head buried in the sand. A casual dismissal of the concerns of patients and their families.

So just as I’m passionate about investing in our NHS staff, I will be the real patients’ champion too

Time and again expert reports – including the groundbreaking survey UNISON published this week – have told us that staffing levels are linked to patient safety but this Conservative Government has failed to deliver staffing levels which keep up with demand.

So the next Labour government will legislate to ensure safe staffing levels in England’s NHS.

We will immediately ask NICE to undertake work to set out how safety can be determined in different settings, including looking at legally enforced staffing ratios.

So conference with a Labour government a new law to guarantee safe staffing, so that finances never again take precedent over patient safety.

And unlike the current Secretary of State I don’t make promises on behalf of the NHS while refusing to give the NHS the resources and tools to deliver those promises.

The NHS under Labour will get the funding needed. Over the coming days we will outline a long term plans for the NHS; for how we integrate health and social care.

For too long, NHS staff have been taken for granted by the Conservative Government. Wages falling, workloads rising. Staffing shortages getting worse.

So I’m pleased to be able to launch here today Labour’s three point pledge for NHS staff: better pay, safer staffing and fully funded education.

So yes this election is about the future of the NHS.

And yes, it falls to this movement as it has throughout our history to make the case with passion and yes pride for a National Health Service – free at the point of need for every man, woman and child.

It falls to us again as it has throughout our history to make the argument for collective provision not just for a basic health service but for the very best health service.

Throughout our history, we never lost our ideals and we never faltered in our ambitions for the best health care for everyone.

Because we know that a National Health Service funded through taxation; with treatment free at the point of delivery; where everyone is treated equally based on clinical need not ability to pay is not only the right thing to do but it’s also the most efficient, effective and safest system of health are across the world.

Friends one of favourites poets WB Yeats wrote ‘in dreams begins responsibility” –

Inspired by the solidarity of the communities of Tredegar and motivated by the dream of a fairer society not just for some but for all Nye Bevan took responsibility to bring it about the Health Service

In doing so we escaped from a world of patch work provision and charges for healthcare

So let’s never forget that in that speech introducing the National Health Service Bill he said the NHS, would

“lift the shadow from millions of homes”

“It will keep very many people alive who might otherwise be dead”

And:

“No society can legitimately call itself civilised” he said, “if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means”

They were words that still inspire

And of a cause that still endures;

And now the responsibility falls to us.

So the choice in this election on June 8th is clear

A rebuilt the National Health Service and social care service for the millions who depend on it with Labour

Or cut backs, sell offs and nothing but a rump service under the Tories.

A world class NHS providing the best quality of care – 

Or waiting times get longer, staff demoralised, standards of care plummeting

The choice is clear.

Labour’s commitment; that is our purpose.

Our Values, Labour Values,

Our Policies will protect the future for the NHS and standards of NHS care

Let’s go out and win.

Thank you

Ends

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Labour •

Kezia Dugdale speech to the STUC

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale today said the General Election is an opportunity to boot the Tories out of office and put a Labour government ‘in power in the interests of working people’.

Speaking to the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), Ms Dugdale said the starting point for a Labour government is ‘making sure that everyone has a decent high quality job that pays a real living wage’.

She said the Tories’ handling of Brexit has ‘shown us the risks they’re willing to take with our country’s economy’.

Ms Dugdale said a Labour Government will end the Trade Union Bill, abolish the rape clause and ensure fair wages and decent work for all.


Here is Kez’s speech in full:

 

Thank you Helen [Connor, STUC President].
Let me begin by paying tribute to the STUC, to Helen and to Grahame Smith, your General Secretary.
The STUC has always been the voice for working people across Scotland, highlighting injustices and fighting for people’s rights, not just in Scotland but right across the world.
In the past, and still today, you have fought for the rights of people at work, and shone a light on racism, sexism and homophobia.
As leader of the Scottish Labour Party, I am proud to have the STUC, and your member unions, as part of our Labour family. You make us stronger, and nothing will ever call into question the historic link between the Labour Party and the trade unions.
Friends, when I accepted the invitation to speak here at your congress, I didn’t expect to be facing the circumstances we are dealing with today.
In just a matter of weeks, we will go to the polls again to elect a new UK Government.
The stakes at this election really could not be higher.
It’s a choice between a hard right Tory Government, intent on pursuing a hard Brexit at any cost.
Or a Labour Government that is offering better and fairer choices, and will put workers’ rights and the values of trade unionism at the heart of everything we do.
That is the choice that is on offer on June 8.
And what an opportunity that is.
Think about what this Tory Government has meant for people across this country over the past seven years, and then think of getting the opportunity to boot them out of office in just a few short weeks.
This is the Government of the bedroom tax, which led to tens of thousands of the most vulnerable people in our country being forced out of their homes.
It is the Government of a cruel and unusual sanctions regime which sees the sick and disabled penalised.
And, if we needed a more recent reminder of the cruelty of the Tories, this is the Government of the rape clause.
A policy implemented by Theresa May and defended by Ruth Davidson here in Scotland.
Friends, if the mark of a civilised society is how we treat our sick, our disabled and the most vulnerable, this is a Government that is failing every test.
And that is why this election is an opportunity.
It is our opportunity to bring about the change that this country needs with a Labour Government, led by Jeremy Corbyn.
Our country stands at a crossroads in this election.
More than ever, people here in Scotland, and right across the UK, feel left behind and marginalised.
They continue to feel that politics isn’t working and that politicians aren’t doing enough to address their concerns.
Our job is to change that.
And, as the Labour Party has always done, our starting point is making sure that everyone has a decent high quality job that pays a real living wage.
Because making sure that people have good jobs isn’t – as you know – just about creating a stronger economy.
It’s about giving people their place in society, and the dignity they deserve.
It’s not just good enough to give people jobs, they have to be well paid and they have to come with rights and protections, guaranteed by trade unions.
But under this Tory Government, we’ve seen our country’s economy driven to low wages, low productivity and low investment.
Workers across the country have seen their incomes stagnate over the past decade, and even today real wages are 10 per cent lower than they were in 2007.
5.7 million people across the UK are in jobs that pay less than the living wage.
And the productivity gap, that even the Chancellor has admitted is “shocking”, still goes without any real solution, and the UK continues to have some of the lowest productivity in Europe.
All of this means that people are working longer and harder for less.
But while people at the very top are getting tax breaks, working families are on average set to be £1,400 a year worse off by 2020.
And the Government now even have to admit that their “National Living Wage” won’t hit the £9 they promised by 2020.
Meanwhile, Scotland’s economy shrank in the final quarter of 2016 and continues to lag way behind the UK’s GDP growth.
Our two biggest industries – finance and oil and gas – which employ tens of thousands of your members continue to go through tough times.
The North Sea has not recovered from its most recent slump, and experts predict that we may be about to lose 20 per cent of Scotland’s jobs in the financial sector to automation over the next two years.
Already, thousands of people in administration jobs in Edinburgh have lost their jobs because they have been replaced by machines.
And this is a trend that is only going to increase in the coming years.
So, we need solutions to our economic problems that address both the challenge of low living standards, and the risks presented by the changing nature of the economy across the UK.
That’s why we’ll start by making the National Living Wage a real living wage of £10 an hour.
And we’ll write the real living wage into law so that everyone will have enough to live on.
This change would bring an immediate increase in living standards to people across our country, but it would also provide a much needed economic boost.
And we must also guarantee the rights of people at work, and the rights of people to organise and be members of trade unions.
That is why the next Labour Government will stand by its promise and repeal the Tories’ anti-Trade Union Bill.
Trade Unions don’t need more restrictions on your ability to organise. You need to be able to organise in even more workplaces, and be recognised for the benefits you can provide to employers as well as employees.
Employers like Lidl, who I have lobbied recently after USDAW highlighted the difficulty they have been having trying to organise there.
It’s the responsibility of all of us to show the benefits that unions can bring and the real difference they can make.
We also need to get to grips with the structure of our economy.
For too long, London and the south east of England has raced ahead of the rest of the UK, while too many other nations and regions have fallen behind.
If our country is to be successful, it needs to be firing on all cylinders.
And that means every part of the United Kingdom working at full capacity.
That is why the next Labour Government would establish a National Investment Bank and Regional Investment Banks across the UK, to help unlock £500 billion of investment and lending, including a £20billion Scottish Investment Bank.
That’s the real change that’s on offer with Labour at this election.
And, friends, with Brexit around the corner it is more important than ever that we begin to think about the kind of country we want to build after the UK leaves the EU.
With the Tories it’s absolutely clear what that will look like.
Theresa May has already made it clear that she’s willing to turn Britain into a bargain basement tax haven if she doesn’t get a deal on Brexit.
We can’t allow that to happen.
The Government’s handling of Brexit has shown us the risks they’re willing to take with our country’s economy.
Threatening to walk away from the EU without a deal is no worse than Nicola Sturgeon’s threat to walk away from the UK with independence.
Both the Tory approach and the SNP approach would lead to job losses and even more austerity than we’re already facing.
And the UK Government’s refusal to take EU nationals off the table as bargaining chips is just another example of their lack of compassion.
That’s why I’m proud that Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer, made absolutely clear yesterday that we would unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU migrants on day one of a Labour Government.
Why? Because, friends, it is the right thing to do.
These are people who have chosen to come to the UK, to make their lives here, to raise families and contribute to our economy here.
We shouldn’t then make them bargaining chips in our negotiations with the EU.
Ruth Davidson must now commit the Tories to providing the same guarantee in her party’s manifesto.
Anything else would add to the growing evidence that she isn’t a different kind of Tory after all.
In our approach to Brexit, Labour would take a very different direction to the Tories, putting the rights and protections we have gained by being part of Europe right at the heart of our country’s future.
But it also provides us with an opportunity here in Scotland to build on the rights we already have.
Earlier this year, at our party conference in Perth, the Scottish Labour Party endorsed federalism as our preferred constitutional model.
This would mean putting power closer to people in every nation and region of the UK – providing an answer to people who feel that politics is too detached and too remote.
For us in Scotland, this would mean considerably more powers for the Scottish Parliament.
These aren’t power for the sake of it.
When Labour has argued for more power for Scotland in the past – right from the early days of devolution – it has been about giving us powers for a purpose.
There is no point in hoarding power in Holyrood. They have to be used.
Our starting point is that any powers returning to the UK that are already devolved should not be re-reserved. That means that powers over things such as agriculture, fisheries and development programmes should come straight to Holyrood, along with their budgets.
But I don’t think we should stop there.
Brexit provides us with the opportunity to go even further.
With the application of the social chapter ending in the UK, now is the right time to think about where power best lies over other areas such as employment law and immigration.
I believe the UK should guarantee a minimum set of rights across the whole country, but the idea of allowing nations or regions of the UK to build upon this is a strong one.
So here in Scotland, we could choose to extend employment rights or top up the minimum wage.
We would want to consult fully with all trade unions before making such a change, but the argument is compelling.
Similarly, the UK will now have to develop and design a new immigration system fit for a post Brexit UK.
Here in Scotland, we have long had different migration needs from other parts of the country. That is why it is right that we should now look at devolving powers over who is able to come in and out of the country.
This would allow us to create a fair and flexible system to meet our needs.
I’m pleased that the STUC have also endorsed these calls earlier in the week, and I’m looking forward to working with you and hopefully making them a reality in the future.
Friends, the next six weeks are going to be a crucial time in the life of our country.
This is when we will decide the direction we will take, and with it the character of the decisions that will be made about Brexit and the future of our country.
My message to you today is this:
We have a chance to get rid of this Tory Government.
And you can only do that by standing with the Labour movement, and supporting the Labour Party.
Clause One of the Labour Party’s rule book says that the purpose of the Labour Party is ‘to organise and maintain in Parliament and in the country a political Labour Party’.
In this election campaign over the next six weeks, I will do all I can to make sure we have a Labour Government.
A Labour Government that will end the Trade Union Bill, abolish the rape clause and ensure fair wages and decent work for all.
A Labour Government, led by Jeremy Corbyn, with real compassion.
A Labour Government, friends, that puts our principles into practice in the place where Labour should be: in power in the interests of working people
Thank you.


 

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Scottish Labour

Green Party pledges to scrap tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants

26 April 2017

*Green Party launches three student policies

*Pledges to scrap tuition fees, bring back maintenance grants and protect students and universities after Brexit

*Co-leader Jonathan Bartley: “Students need a liferaft in the Brexit storm”

The Green Party will announce three policies aimed at students at an event in Sheffield today.

Co-leader Jonathan Bartley and deputy leader Amelia Womack will make a series of commitments to students during a visit to the University of Sheffield [1]. They will be joined by students, members of the Young Greens and Natalie Bennett, candidate for Sheffield Central.

The Green Party will pledge to:

*Scrap tuition fees

*Reinstate maintenance grants

*Continue the Erasmus programme and match EU funding for universities with a UK equivalent after Brexit

Ahead of the announcement, Bartley said:

“The Green Party is the only party standing up for students and putting young people at the heart of its campaign. Education is a right not a commodity to be bought and sold, and we need a level playing field so everyone has the chance to go to university or college. 

“Students need a liferaft in the Brexit storm. They are being ignored in the Brexit negotiations, despite having the most to lose. Funding for our universities is under unprecedented threat. The Green Party will not let young people miss out on opportunities to study, travel and work across Europe because of a decision that they so emphatically voted against.   

“Building a better future for young people is an absolute priority and today we are committing to policies that will help us work towards an open, fairer society where everyone has the chance to succeed.”

Notes:

1.  The policy launch is at 12 noon, April 26 outside the Information Commons, University of Sheffield, 44 Leavygreave Road, Sheffield S3 7RD.

2. Green Party tax plans will be unveiled in the manifesto in May. The scrapping of tuition fees will be paid for through progressive taxation including a rise in corporation tax for large companies. Corporation tax has been cut sharply since 2010, with the main rate dropping from 28% to a proposed 17%, which will cost £12bn by 2020-21. 

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Green Party •

Press release: New charity investigation: ANO

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a statutory inquiry into ANO, registered charity number 1155123. The inquiry was opened on 3 April 2017.

The Leicester-based charity, also known as Aid for the Needy & Oppressed, has objects to provide relief of poverty, in particular countries affected by disasters and war, through financial support, goods and services.

In December 2016, a trustee of the charity was stopped by UK Ports Officers where cash totalling £19,300 belonging to the charity was seized. These funds are subject to a cash detention order and are at risk of loss in the event of a successful forfeiture application. The trustee submitted a Serious Incident Report (RSI) to the Commission regarding the incident in January 2017.

The Commission sought additional information from the charity’s trustees regarding their decision to courier the charity’s funds in cash, and exercised its powers under section 52 of the Charities Act 2011 to obtain copies of the charity’s bank statements. The Commission’s analysis of the information obtained to date has identified a number of regulatory concerns which warrant further investigation.

The investigation will consider:

  • the administration, governance and management of the charity by the trustees;
  • the financial controls and management of the charity and whether its funds have been properly expended solely for exclusively charitable purposes and can be accounted for;
  • the conduct of the trustees; and
  • whether or not the trustees have complied with and fulfilled their duties and responsibilities as trustees under charity law.

The Commission recently issued an alert to charities strongly advising against the use of cash couriers.

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on GOV.UK.

The charity’s details can be viewed on the Commission’s online charity search tool.

Ends

PR 34/17

Notes to editors

  1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
  2. Search for charities on our online register.
  3. Details of how the Commission reports on its regulatory work can be found on GOV.UK.
  4. Section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 gives the Commission the power to institute inquiries. The opening of an inquiry gives the Commission access to a range of investigative, protective and remedial legal powers.
  5. The Commission’s decision to announce the opening of a statutory inquiry is based on whether it is in the public interest to do so and with consideration of our objective to increase public trust and confidence in charities.
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