Keir Starmer MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, commenting on the CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn’s speech on Brexit said:

“Today’s speech from the CBI underlines what Labour has been saying for months: that Theresa May’s Brexit strategy risks a cliff-edge for the economy and is a threat to jobs and investment.

“Labour agree that we need an early commitment to ensure strong transitional arrangements, and that these should be on similar terms to those we currently enjoy. Without that commitment, and without a bridge to new trading arrangements with the EU, there will be growing uncertainty for businesses and investment decisions will be delayed.

“Labour are clear that jobs and the economy must come first in the Brexit negotiations. It is time the Prime Minister and the Brexit Secretary listened to the growing concerns from businesses and the Treasury and changed their reckless approach.”

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to a new British Medical Journal report revealing a new wave of NHS postcode rationing, said:

“The Conservative Government’s underfunding and neglect of the health service is causing misery for patients and making it harder to access routine NHS treatments.

“This new BMJ research reveals that thousands more patients are being turned down for treatment every year. Across the country services which were previously easily available are now being rationed because of the Tory funding squeeze.

“Behind every one of these statistics is a patient and their family waiting longer in pain and suffering because of this Government’s scandalous undermining of the NHS.

“Only Labour has a plan to give the NHS the funding it needs so that patients across the country can get quick access to the treatments and medical support that they need.”

Gordon Marsden MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Minister, commenting on the IFS report on tuition fee reforms, said:

“This report shows that any argument that the current fee system is progressive is absolute nonsense. From scrapping the maintenance grant to freezing the repayment threshold, this Government has increased the debt burden of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who will graduate with debts in excess of £57,000.

“Under the Tories, student debt continues to rise with no end in sight, and students in the UK will now graduate with a shocking average of over £50,000 in debt.

“After Labour pledged to scrap tuition fees, the First Secretary of State has called for a national debate on tuition fees, and he is right to do so. The Government must decide if they want to carry on funding our higher education system through a lifetime of debt and a tax on aspiration, or deliver a debt-free education system run for the many not the few.”

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, has today (Friday) written to the Prime Minister asking for the terms of the Grenfell fire inquiry to be broadened and for residents to be heard throughout the process.

In his letter, Jeremy expresses concern at the narrow terms of reference, saying: “it is clear to me from talking to Grenfell residents that their concerns and questions stretch beyond these narrow terms.”

The Labour Leader suggests conducting a “two part inquiry, with the first part looking at the specific issues around Grenfell and reporting back quickly and the second part looking at the national issues.”

Jeremy also urges an interim report, writing: “ongoing uncertainty and long delays would add to the trauma Grenfell residents and victims’ families have already experienced.”

Jeremy also asks the Prime Minister to commit to taking action now on areas not related to the outcome of the inquiry, including identifying all those missing or dead, amnesty for victims concerned at immigration status, providing permanent in-borough accommodation to all residents, committing up-front funding for councils, and overhauling building regulations.

The letter is attached and published in full here  http://www.labour.org.uk/page/-/PDFs/Letter%20to%20The%20Prime%20Minister%20on%20Grenfell%2030.06.17.pdf  

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, speaking in the Queen’s Speech debate in the House of Commons today, said:

 ***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***

“Thank you Mr Speaker,

I beg to move the amendment in my name and that of my honourable and right honourable colleagues.

I have been in the House now for 20 years, never have we seen such a threadbare scrap of a document as this Queens Speech.

Let’s be grateful for small mercies, it’s a pleasure to note what has not been mentioned in this vacuous notelet.

Despite being promised in the Conservative manifesto, we have heard no plans for legislation to end the triple lock.

We have heard nothing about legislation to end winter fuel payments.

We have heard no legislative plans for the so-called dementia tax.

Nothing of the policy to take food from the mouths of infants and younger primary school children.

Even the flagship grammar schools policy seems to have been ditched from the Queen’s Speech.

I want to thank the millions of voters who rejected the Conservatives, they have been prevented the Tories from implementing in full the cuts they promised.

Instead the Government has been reduced to a grubby back-room deal and pork barrel politics in an attempt to cling onto office.

The result is that we have a Queen’s Speech devoid of content which offers no solutions to the pressing issues facing Britain today.

The Queen’s Speech says, and I quote,

“My ministers will strengthen the economy so that it supports the creation of jobs”

The reality Mr Speaker, is that we are witnessing, to quote the Governor of the Bank of England, the weakest UK business investment in half a century.

The growth of insecure, low paid, low skilled jobs. 1 million on zero hours contracts.

The Queens Speech promises to “invest in the NHS, schools and other public services”.

The reality is that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Spending per pupil remains set to fall.

Police officers, firefighters and border guards will be cut.

And the NHS, already at breaking point, has been promised no new money.

Not our words Mr Speaker but those of the British Medical Association.

The Chancellor has, in various interviews, bemoaned the fact that he was hidden away during the election campaign and that his record on the economy was not the central plank of the Conservatives’ campaign.

I agree.

I wish he had been more to the fore in the campaign and his record more widely exposed.

Because if it had been, Labour would be in government now.

I don’t believe that, so far, the Rt Hon gentlemen has been afforded his proper place in history.

For those Hon Members who were not in this place 8 years ago, let me explain that the Chancellor was, prior to 2010, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

And as an ardent neo-liberal, the Chancellor, in his role as Chief Secretary, was the Architect of Austerity.

It was he who designed the detail of the economic programme rolled out by his mentor George Osborne after 2010.

He has been at the heart of the Austerity cabinet throughout this period.

He should not hide his light under a bushel.

In his recent Mansion House speech he referred to his Government’s record as, “a record of which we are proud”.

The foundation of the chancellor’s record is his adherence to neo-liberalism – trickle-down economics.

A theory which argues that, if you cut taxes for the rich and for corporations, and turn a blind eye to tax avoidance and tax evasion, then somehow this wealth will somehow trickle down to the rest of society.

The Chancellor has certainly adhered to tax cuts for the rich and for corporations.

Corporation tax, capital gains tax, Inheritance Tax and the Bank levy have all been slashed.

Independent analysis demonstrates that OBR costings of tax cuts introduced by the Conservatives on these four measures alone since 2010 will have cost tax payers over £70bn between last year and the end of this Parliament.

The corporation tax cuts were meant to lead to a large scale increase in Business investment in our economy.

But last year business investment fell for the first time since 2009 and remains lower than in the rest of the G7, with the exception of Italy.

Corporations are now sitting on £580 billion of earned income that they are not investing.

Some have been exposed as being involved in share buy-backs to boost performance statistics and bonuses.

Seven years of Tory austerity have done nothing to address the grotesque and widening levels of wealth inequality in the UK.

A report last year by Credit Suisse found that the richest 1% of people in the UK now own almost a quarter of the country’s wealth.

The Sunday Times Rich List told us that the richest 1000 families in the UK had more than doubled their wealth since the financial crash.

This is the record of which the Chancellor is so proud.

Let’s measure the impact of this record on the rest of society.

It’s important we do because this Queen’s speech promises just more of the same.

This could have been the Queens Speech that ended austerity once and for all. It certainly doesn’t.

Is it a matter of pride for the Chancellor that nearly one and a quarter million food parcels were handed out by food banks last year?

Are we to be proud of a government that can’t feed its people?

How can anyone be proud that over 77,000 households were in temporary accommodation this year- an almost 8% increase on last year?

Rough sleeping has increased by 134% since this Government came to power.

There are 1.2 million households on the housing waiting lists.

Nearly 70,000 children are being brought up in temporary accommodation whilst house building has fallen to its lowest level since the 1920s?

Are we to be proud that we have a government that can’t adequately house its population?

Is it a proud record that four million children are trapped in poverty in our country?

Two thirds of these children are in working families.

And it’s not just children.

The latest figures show that 14 million people are living in poverty in the UK.

This includes nearly two million pensioners – the very people the Conservatives were going to hit with ending the triple lock, means testing winter fuel payments and introducing a dementia tax.

Over 80% of the austerity measures have fallen on women.

But some of the hardest hit have been disabled people.

According the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, almost half of those in poverty are disabled or live in a household with a disabled person.

The brutality of the Work Capability Assessment has been associated with over 590 suicides.

Is it a record to be proud of that his cap on public sector pay has contributed to wages falling by 10% since 2008?

We have witnessed the longest fall in wages on record.

Nearly six million people earn less than the living wage.

People were shocked when the RCN revealed nurses pay had fallen by 14%, forcing some nurses to rely on foodbanks.

Is it something to be proud of that the UK is the only major developed country that has seen economic growth but falling wages?

Yesterday we had the chaos of mixed messages coming out from Number 10 and the Treasury over hints that the pay cap was to be scrapped.

Last night the coalition of the Tories and the DUP voted down our motion to support public sector workers securing a fair pay rise.

Ministers have been quick to praise the devotion and bravery of our emergency services in the aftermath of the tragedies we have seen in recent weeks.

But last night they could not extend that generosity to give those men and women that put their lives on the line to keep us safe, a pay rise.

The proper governance of this country is being undermined by the disputes between the PM and the Chancellor.

Let’s look at the desperate state of our public services.

How can anyone take pride in:

Spending per pupil set to fall by 8% between 2015-16 and 2019-20

Over 46,000 children’s operations have been cancelled over the last four years

Police numbers have been cut by 20,000 since 2010

Firefighter posts have been cut by 10,000 since 2010

20,000 soldiers cut from 2010.

So we have a government that can’t feed our people, can’t house our people or protect our children and older people from poverty.

It cannot ensure that when people go to work they earn enough to live on.

And it can’t maintain our basic public services.

That’s a government that doesn’t deserve to remain in office.

All this suffering by ordinary people under austerity to protect the rich and the corporations has been for what?

On the government’s own metrics it has significantly failed.

They promised that the deficit would be eradicated in five years- now it will be 15 years at best.

They have added £700 billion to the national debt, leaving £1.7 trillion of debt for future generations.

In the first quarter of this year growth has fallen to 0.2% while inflation has increased to 2.9% - below wage growth.

Last year saw the slowest rate of business investment since 2009.

Wages are lower today than when the Tories took office in 2010.

Unsecured debt per household will reach a record high this year.

It’s not just the Labour Party that is highlighting the consequences of the Tories’ failed economic approach.

Last week, the Governor of the Bank of England warned of “weaker real income growth”.

He spoke about “markedly weak investment” and “rapid consumer credit growth”.

And worryingly he warned that “the extent to which the UK’s [current account] deficit has moved closer to sustainability remains an open question”, as we continue to rely on the “kindness of strangers” to fund us.

The Bank’s Chief Economist said last week that 7 per cent of the entire workforce could be on zero-hours contracts in a decade.

The Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies has called the lost wage growth in this country “completely unprecedented”.

The IFS have also referred to the “unacknowledged risks to the quality of public services” under the Conservatives, and judge that their austerity plans would be so harsh as to potentially be undeliverable.

A Queen’s speech which is devoid of any serious measures to address the economic challenges facing this country and the pressures ordinary people and our public services are under.

Austerity continues to impact on our schools, health services, emergency services and peoples living standards.

In the Autumn Budget, it will be interesting to see how the Chancellor covers the black hole derived from his last disastrous budget. At least £2bn we are aware of and according to some commentators growing to anything up to £7bn.

In particular it would be helpful if the Chancellor explained today how he covers the cost of the £1b grubby bribe to the DUP to keep his party clinging onto office.

£100m a vote the cost of the deal.

If I were a Tory backbencher I would start to negotiate now for a slice of that action.

After the miraculous discovery of funds for the DUP deal I don’t expect to hear much more about magic money trees from the other side.

£1bn found for the DUP but nothing to address the fundamentals of our weak and precarious economy which is now faced with the challenges of BREXIT.

Increasingly people are waking up to the fact that a government lacking a strong and stable leadership is incapable of securing a deal which protects our jobs and economy.

Divisions at the top of Government, a Cabinet divided.

Rows between members of the Government’s negotiating team are breaking out on a daily basis as they position themselves for their own leadership challenges.

As a result we witness weekly changes of direction in the Government’s own negotiating stance.

That includes even changes in direction by the Chancellor.

Only weeks ago he was threatening no deal – walking away to set the UK up as a tax haven off the coast of continental Europe.

Now it is reported he is potentially looking to the customs union and a long and uncertain transition period.

Only months ago he went along with the Government prioritising immigration control over the protection of jobs and the economy. Now he claims to want a jobs first BREXIT.

All this, the failed and deeply unpopular austerity programme, the deeply divided rudderless cabinet and the directionless Brexit negotiating strategy, a content-less Queen’s speech surely confirm it is time for this government to go.

It’s time for change.

As the Labour Party demonstrated during the general election campaign: there is an alternative.

We can address the deep-rooted problems our economy faces.

The Labour Party has forged ahead with a serious, credible alternative to the Governments failed approach.

Our society can afford decent public services.

We are the fifth largest economy in the world.

If we have a fair tax system, we can end the cuts in schools budgets.

We can end the horrific sight of children sleeping on chairs in hospital corridors.

We can end the bedroom tax and the punitive benefits sanctions regimes.

And we can do that – as confirmed by the IFS – while remaining on target to eliminate the budget deficit in accordance with our Fiscal Credibility Rule.

But it’s not just about a fairer tax system: we need a government to invest what’s needed to secure our future.

Not the derisory numbers floated by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statement with so little to back them up.

A serious, long-term vision of the economy which tackles the regional disparities and the changes taking place in the labour market.

A commitment to drive up productivity by increasing investment – as demanded by the CBI and many others – and delivering a serious industrial strategy.

It’s a transformative programme we look forward to implementing in Government.

This Queen’s Speech does nothing to solve our problems.

It confirms a Government isolated from the real world in which our people live.

Labour’s amendment today sets out the alternative our country so desperately needs.

I urge all Honourable members to support the amendment.”

Jeremy Corbyn will speak at six rallies across England, Scotland and Wales on Wednesday 7 June 2017, the final day before polling day.

On Tuesday, 6 June, Jeremy addressed thousands at six simultaneous events - and watched by 1.5 million people on Facebook live.

On the final day of campaigning, Jeremy will begin the day in Glasgow Central and travel to Weaver Vale, Clwyd West, Watford, Harrow East, until he reaches the final rally in Islington South.

He will set out Labour’s plans to transform Britain for the many, not the few, including:

·         No tax rises for 95 percent of people and asking the top 5 percent and big businesses to pay a bit more to fund our schools, hospitals, social care and invest in our economy

·         Protecting pensioners incomes with the triple lock and guaranteeing winter fuel payments

·         Providing an extra £37 billion for the NHS and £8 billion for social care

·         Raising the minimum wage to £10 an hour, ending the public sector pay cap and bringing in workers’ rights from day one of any job

·         Scrapping university tuition fees and bringing back education maintenance grants

·         Cutting class sizes in schools and bringing in free school meals for all primary school children

·         Building a million new homes

·         Bringing rail, water, parts of the energy system and post back into public ownership to cut bills and improve in services

Commenting on Labour’s last day of campaigning, Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party said:

“I am incredibly proud of Labour’s manifesto to transform Britain for the many not the few.

“On the last day before people go to the polls, we will be campaigning in towns and cities across England, Scotland and Wales with our message that change can come.

“Our campaign has been about the kind of country we want to live in, one in which the wealth creators - that means all of us - share in that wealth, and everyone has the opportunity to succeed.

“Tomorrow, the British people will be able to vote for a government that will put an end to the rigged system that benefits the super-rich. Every vote for Labour will be a vote to put power, wealth and opportunity back in the hands of the many, not the few.”

Speaking at Glasgow Central, Jeremy Corbyn will say:

“Older people have given us so much but they are being held back by a Conservative government that is refusing to protect their incomes through the pensions triple lock, is taking away the winter fuel allowance from millions of pensioners and demanding people pay for social care with their homes.

“Labour will do things differently. We won’t take older people for granted like the Tories, we will treat them with the respect they deserve and have earned. We will guarantee the triple lock, keep the winter fuel allowance and invest in social care to provide security and dignity for the many not the few.”

Speaking at Weaver Vale, Jeremy Corbyn will say:

“Our NHS is the nation’s pride and joy, and our greatest achievement but it is under threat from underfunding and privatisation after seven years of the Conservatives. We can’t afford another five years of the Tories.

“The election on Thursday is an opportunity to say enough is enough. We have had enough of our NHS being undermined, we’ve had enough of NHS services being sold off for profit, and we’ve had enough of our brilliant NHS staff being treated with contempt.

“Labour will end the Conservatives’ plans for more privatisation, give our NHS the funding it needs, and scrap the pay cap and give health workers the pay rise they have needed for years.”

Speaking at Clywd West, Jeremy Corbyn will say:

“When police officers warned Theresa May as Home Secretary about the damaging effect of cuts, she accused them of ‘scaremongering’ and ‘crying wolf’. What a disgraceful way to treat those brave officers who keep us safe every day.

“Labour will never take for granted those who keep us safe. We will invest to reverse years of Tory cuts, and employ 10,000 more police officers, 3,000 firefighters, 3,000 prison officers, 1,000 intelligence staff and 500 border guards. We will do whatever it takes to keep our people safe.”

Speaking at Watford, Jeremy Corbyn will say:

“The Conservatives have held students back for too long, saddling them with massive debts by trebling tuition fees. Labour will lift this cloud of debt - now an average of £45,000 -  and scrap tuition fees as part of our plan to transform Britain for the many not the few.

“We believe everyone should have the chance to study, not just those that can afford it, and we will restore the principle that education is free. No one should be put off from getting an education through a lack of money or fear of debt.”

Speaking at Harrow East, Jeremy Corbyn will say:

“No child should go hungry at school. The Conservatives are ending universal free school meals for five, six and seven-year-olds and giving them a breakfast that costs 6.8 p - that’s barely a thimble of cornflakes.

“By charging VAT on private schools fees, Labour will make sure all primary school children get a healthy meal at school. We will build a society for the many not the few, starting with our children eating a healthy free lunch together.”

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to leaked reports in the Health Service Journal said: 

“With 48 hours to go until the General Election the true scale of the secret Tory plan for cuts and closures across the NHS has been revealed by the Health Service Journal.

“We now know if the Tories are re-elected on Thursday we’ll see hospital wards closed, waiting times growing, treatments rationed and staff cut.

“The fact that NHS bosses have described this as the ‘most extreme and difficult NHS finance process they had experienced’ and would 'challenge the value basis of the NHS’ will make chilling reading for patients and their families who deserve the very best levels of care.

“Every single day the Tories are in power hospitals are being left to crumble, staff are being let down, waiting lists are growing and patients are being denied the care they need and deserve. 

“Let’s be clear: these new, secret Tory plans will only be stopped by electing a Labour Government on Thursday.

"The NHS cannot survive five more years of a Tory government. That is why, Labour will pledge to bring the health service back from the brink with a multi-billion pound rescue package. The British people deserve nothing less.”

Ends

Notes to editors

·         ‘Exclusive: New national savings drive will 'challenge the values’ of NHS leaders’ [www.hsj.co.uk/topics/finance-and-efficiency/exclusive-new-national-savings-drive-will-challenge-the-values-of-nhs-leaders/7018461.article?blocktitle=News&contentID=15303]

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow Secretary of State for Housing John Healey will today (Monday 5 June 2017) launch ‘Labour’s New Deal on Housing’ – the party’s long-term plan to fix the housing crisis. They will promise to give priority to those let down most by failings in the housing market and in Conservative housing policy.  

Setting out more detail on the Party’s plans to deal with the country’s housing crisis and build at least a million new homes, the published plan will include: 

·         A New Deal for first-time buyers on ordinary incomes, including 100,000 new discounted FirstBuy Homes, a two year stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers, and an extension and re-focusing of Help to Buy so that it is only for first-time buyers;

·         A New Deal for those 1.2 million on council waiting lists with a huge increase in affordable housebuilding to be building 100,000 genuinely affordable homes a year by 2022, including the biggest council housing programme in over 30 years;

·         A New Deal for private renters with a consumer rights revolution including three-year tenancies with an inflation cap on rent rises and new minimum property standards.

 Labour will also criticise Conservative Minsters for “seven years of failure” on housing, and highlight that since 2010 we have seen:

·         Housebuilding at the lowest level under any political party in peacetime since the 1920s;

·         The lowest level of new affordable housebuilding in 24 years;

·         Almost 200,000 fewer home-owners, with 900,000 fewer under 45s owning their own home;

·         Rents rising faster than incomes for many;

·         More families forced into temporary accommodation, with 120,000 children spending last Christmas without a home of their own; and

·         Rough sleeping homelessness more than doubled.

 Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

 “A Labour government will start on fixing the housing crisis immediately. High prices, excessive rents and the chronic lack of affordable housing are ruining the lives of young people, families and aspiring homeowners.

“As part of our massive housebuilding commitment, Labour will ensure 100,000 FirstBuy Homes are available at discounted rates to local first time buyers. This will transform the housing market and put the needs of younger house buyers and local workers first.

“Labour will usher in a new era in council housebuilding to build more council homes than at any time for over 30 years so that the broken market is fixed to provide homes for the many, not investment opportunities for a wealthy few.”

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

“After seven years of failure, the Conservatives have no plan to fix the housing crisis and Theresa May only offers more of the same. Labour offers a New Deal on housing between the people of this country and a new government. It is a bold, long-term plan for housing to help those being let down most by a broken housing market and failing Conservative policy – young first-time buyers, private renters and people needing new social rented homes.

“Our first Labour housing priority will be help for young first-time buyers. Under the last Labour government, a million more families became home-owners but now the Tories are failing first-time buyers on middle incomes. Under the Conservatives since 2010 homeownership has fallen by 200,000 with younger families on ordinary incomes the hardest hit.

 “Labour’s new FirstBuy Homes will give aspiring first-time buyers on ordinary wages who’ve been failed for the last seven years hope that things can change.

 “After seven years of failure, a Labour government will shift the housing market decisively towards first-time buyers on ordinary incomes.”

 Ends

·         

Labour is calling on the Tories to come clean on how many pensioners will be hit by their plans for a dementia tax and means testing for Winter Fuel Payments.

With six days to go until voting, Theresa May has still not ended the uncertainty facing millions of pensioners.

Tory plans to scrap universal Winter Fuel Payments could hit as many as 10.8 million pensioners, according to a Labour analysis of Pension Credit data.

Meanwhile, the Tories are still refusing to give a figure for the cap they will put on their dementia tax, the name given to their plan to force people to pay for social care with their homes.

An analysis by the Labour Party (see below) shows the effect of the Tory dementia tax on older people living in a house worth the average UK price of £217,500 if the cap is set at £72,000 or £100,000 and they find they need home care at the capped level.

At a cap of £100,000, a person in this situation needing the capped amount of care would lose 42 percent of the value of their estate. The more someone’s house is worth, the lower the percentage they would lose.

Labour has set out its pledges to older people - maintaining the triple-lock on state pensions to protect incomes, investing £37 billion into the NHS and £8 billion into social care over the next parliament and protecting Winter Fuel Payments and free bus passes.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, commenting on this analysis, said:

“It is staggering that just six days from polling day millions of pensioners still don’t know what’s in store for them if they are unlucky enough to get dementia or any other condition that needs care in the home.

“The dementia tax is itself unfair but what’s made matters even worse is the way Theresa May announced a cap and then failed to say how much it would be.

“Alongside this, older people face the additional uncertainty of not knowing who will be eligible for a Winter Fuel Payment. The introduction of a means test could mean more than ten million people losing the payment.

“Theresa May’s Tories only offer to pensioners is insecurity and cuts. Labour will stand up for older people by maintaining the triple-lock on state pensions, investing £8 billion into social care over the next parliament and protecting winter fuel payments and free bus passes.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Winter Fuel Payments

The Conservative manifesto also includes a commitment to means test the Winter Fuel Payment which, if linked to Pension Credit, could remove the support to heat homes from ten million pensioners. But analysis by the Labour Party has found that even this could be an underestimate, as 40 percent of those eligible do not claim Pension Credit. This would leave a further 800,000 older people without support to heat their homes, bringing the total number losing out to 10,800,000.  

Resolution Foundation analysis of Conservative plans to means test the Winter Fuel Payment: http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/blog/death-taxes-the-conservative-manifesto-and-the-changing-politics-of-intergenerational-fairness/

DWP estimates of benefit take up, showing 40 percent of those eligible for Pension Credit do not claim: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535362/ir-benefits-take-up-main-report-2014-15.pdf

Dementia Tax
A 75 year-old owner occupier with savings of £20,000, whose home is worth the UK average house price of £217,500 facing home care costs of £100,000.
Under the current system:   subject to income, would pay nothing towards their care costs
At a cap of £72,000:             would pay £72,000 - would use all their savings and have a 24 percent charge (£52,000) set against the value of their home
At a cap of £100,000:           would pay £100,000, the full cost of care

AVERAGE CARE COSTS: Analysis for the Dilnot Commission in 2010 found that 45 percent of 65 year olds could expect to spend (or have spent on them) more than £25,000 on care services, and 10 percent could expect to spend more than £100,000. Source: Dilnot Commission Report Vol 2: Evidence and Analysis http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130221130239/https://www.wp.dh.gov.uk/carecommission/files/2011/07/Volume-II-Evidence-and-Analysis1.pdf

AVERAGE WEALTH OF OLDER PEOPLE: 34 percent of older people aged 70-79 have non-housing assets below £23,250 but assets including houses above £100,000. Source: IFS, based on English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, wave 7 https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/9243

HOUSE PRICES: Average House Price (Feb 2017) in the UK is £217,502 Source: Land Registry http://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ukhpi

The next Labour Government will put rail passengers first by putting the brakes on rapidly increasing rail fares and saving commuters £1,014 on their season tickets

Under a Labour Government, passengers will on average save £1,014 on their rail season tickets over the next parliament, compared to the potential cost under a Tory Government.

Since 2010, regulated rail fares have risen by 27.1 per cent, increasing the average cost of a season ticket by £594.

The 2015 Conservative manifesto included a commitment to keeping rail fares frozen in real terms. However, regulated fares were capped at the Retail Price Index (RPI), which consistently over-estimates inflation, rather than the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Labour will cap regulated fair rises at the Consumer Price Index (CPI), using the money saved through bringing rail franchises back into public ownership. As more services come into public ownership, greater amounts of savings become available, and Labour will aim to introduce further fare caps or reductions.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“Under the Conservatives, rail fares have sky-rocketed and tickets are some of the most expensive in Europe.

“Labour will take Britain’s railways back into public control and put more money into people’s pockets by capping fares. This will save commuters £1,014 on their rail season tickets over the next Parliament, as part of our plan to promote services for the many, not the few.”

Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, said:

“Theresa May’s failure to commit to freezing rail fares shows just how out of touch they are.

“Under the Conservatives, fares have risen three times faster than wages, passenger satisfaction is plummeting, punctuality has fallen to a 10 year low and promised upgrades have either been delayed by years or scrapped altogether.

“Privatised rail has failed and it will take more than tinkering around the edges to deliver much needed improvements for passengers. Labour will take the railways back into public ownership and put passengers first by capping fares.”

The 2017 Tory manifesto has failed to make any commitment to keeping rail fares frozen in real terms, meaning rail fares are likely to rise above inflation (RPI) if the Conservatives win the General Election.

Between 2011 - 2013 the Tories allowed fares to rise by RPI plus 1 per cent. If fares continue to increase by the same rate, the average cost of a season ticket will rise by an extra £160 by the end of the next parliament, compared to being frozen at RPI.