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

“Today’s stats reveal a relentlessly bleak picture for patients at the start of the NHS’s 70th Birthday. Eight years of severe austerity has left our health service woefully underfunded, understaffed and unprepared for the rise in demand as the cold period hits.

“Since the Tories took control of our NHS, there has been a staggering 400% increase in trolley waits and a 234% rise in patients waiting longer than four hours in A&E.

“December’s A&E performance is the worst on record, with just 85.1% of patients being seen within four hours. This is a substantial performance decline and raises serious questions as to whether the Government can meet its pledge of meeting the 95% A&E target by their promised deadline of March 2018.

“Over the past few weeks we’ve heard the appalling human stories arising from the worst winter crisis on record. Enough is enough.

“Today NHS Providers has rightly warned that the funding settlement for the NHS is simply inadequate to provide the standards of patient care expected. The Government must listen. Only Labour will put in place a long term plan for the NHS giving it the funding needed for the future.”

Tom Watson MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, commenting on the Prime Minister’s statement that her Government will seek to overturn last night’s Lords vote that backed Leveson 2, said:  

“Last night’s vote was a milestone for the victims of hacking and press intrusion and a step towards fulfilling the promises for change made by all parties in 2012.  

“Following that vote, Theresa May had a choice: whether to side with the victims of phone hacking or to side with her friends in the press and those that want to block change. Her words this morning make clear that she has abandoned all the promises made to victims after the hacking scandal was exposed. 

“Labour has never wavered from our support for the victims of press abuse.  In every General Election manifesto since the scandal we have reiterated our support for the victims and our commitment to bring into force the Leveson system for independent regulation of the press and complete Part 2 of the Inquiry.  

“These amendments do precisely that and we will be fighting to keep them in the bill when it comes to the Commons.”

Tom Watson MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, responding to the House of Lords backing Leveson 2, said: 

“In 2012, all parties made a promise to the victims of phone hacking. At many times since then the Tories have tried to renege on that promise.  

“Tonight’s votes are an important step towards justice. 

“Unlike the Tories, Labour has always stood by the victims of hacking and press intrusion with promises in each of our past manifestos to enact all the recommendations of Leveson.  

“These votes send a signal to the Tories: that they must keep their promises.”

Justin Madders MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to the Care Quality Commission’s decision to suspend routine inspections because of winter pressures, said:

“Another day, another example of Tory failure to suitably prepare our NHS for the predictable winter spike in demand. This incredibly serious decision must act as a wakeup call to a Government which remains in denial over the worst winter crisis on record.

“Gaining a full picture of winter pressures is critically important and the CQC’s decision leaves a serious deficit of quality regulation.

“Coming off the back of the cancellation of 55,000 elective operations, Ministers must now back Labour’s call for immediate additional funding to stabilise this appalling winter crisis.”

Keir Starmer MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, responding to the Government’s recent amendments to the EU withdrawal bill, said:

“This is a deeply flawed and damaging piece of legislation. The Government’s piecemeal changes are woefully inadequate meaning once again nothing has changed.

“There is nothing to address the fundamental concerns that MPs across Parliament have about watering down workers’ and environmental rights, the extreme scope of Henry VIII powers and the disregard of the devolution settlement.

“The bill in its current form would also block any sensible transitional deal with the European Union, and it contradicts the policy laid out in the Prime Minister’s Florence Speech.

"Theresa May must rethink her approach or face legitimate opposition from Labour and some of her own MPs.”

Ends

Dawn Butler MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, responding to Toby Young’s resignation, said:

“The Toby Young saga has further exposed Theresa May’s total lack of judgement in appointing him and her weakness in refusing to sack him. She should have removed him from his post, not personally backed him at the weekend and sent a minister out to defend him in Parliament yesterday.”

Jon Trickett MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, responding to Theresa May’s reshuffle today, said:

“With the NHS in crisis, working people worse off and Brexit preparations in turmoil, Theresa May is leading a failing Government.

“By simply rearranging the deckchairs in her reshuffle, Theresa May has shown that her floundering Government is out of fresh ideas. It takes more than re-naming departments to erase seven years of failure.

“What the country desperately needs is a new approach. With Jeremy Corbyn, that’s what Labour offers: a new Britain, run in the interests of the many, not the few.”

Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, commenting on the loss of a further 250 jobs at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant, said

‘’When PSA Group took over Vauxhall last year the Government promised it would do the utmost to protect workers, but since then a third of jobs at Ellesmere Port have been cut.

“The Tories are failing to give businesses and workers the security they need to navigate Brexit, which has been demonstrated again in today’s EEF report on manufacturer’s expectations for 2018.  

“The Government must set out how it will support the plant and urgently provide certainty for the sector as a whole after Brexit.’’

Justin Madders MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to Philip Dunne MP’s remark that there are seats to sit on if beds aren’t available, said:

“This is an appalling and ignorant remark from a Minister entirely out of touch with the reality of the NHS winter crisis.

“Placing sick patients in chairs because of acute bed shortages is clearly not acceptable in the 21^st Century. And yet with numerous Trusts this winter at times reporting 100 per cent bed occupancy, hospitals simply cannot cope and are being forced into these intolerable situations.

“Patients and staff are currently facing an unprecedented winter crisis. Instead of worrying about reshuffles, the Prime Minister must urgently sort this mess out.”

Responding to Theresa May’s comment on the Andrew Marr show that “nothing is perfect” in the NHS, Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said:

“Yet again Theresa May has shown utter disregard for those patients languishing on trolleys, delayed in ambulances in the freezing cold weather or forced to wait longer in pain and anxiety because their operation has been cancelled.

“A real apology would be backed up by real action. Instead all we get is a plan to promote the Health Secretary who has overseen this crisis. Promoting the Health Secretary would be a betrayal of patients who deserve better this winter.”