More than a million children and their families will benefit from Labour plans for universal provision of 30 hours of free childcare a week for all two to four-year-olds.

Labour will extend 30-hour childcare to more children by eliminating means testing for two-year-olds and no longer restricting provision for three and four-year-olds to children whose parents are working.  This will benefit an additional 1.3 million children.

At the moment, only 40% of two-year-olds qualify for childcare and many working parents with three and four-year-old children are not getting the childcare they were promised by the Conservatives at the last election because of the complexity of the rules. Meanwhile, Tory cuts have also led to the loss of 1,240 Sure Start centres.

Labour’s universal childcare policy will help ensure all children have a good start in life and remove barriers to parents, especially women, participating in the labour market.

Labour’s National Education Service will create a high-quality, universal childcare system that will bridge the gap between maternity leave and full-time schooling in the long run.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“The Labour party believes every child, no matter what their background, deserves a good start in life, and that childcare costs shouldn’t be a barrier for parents who want to go back to work. The current patchy support for childcare is holding back too many families.

“High quality childcare can transform a child’s life chances and make it much easier for parents to work. Labour will roll out 30 hours of free childcare a week to all 2-4 year olds to give all our children the best possible start in life, as part of our plan to build a country for the many, not the few.”

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said:

“The Conservatives’ 2015 promise to provide parents 30 free hours of childcare a week has unravelled, as they have failed to give the policy the funding it needs. Too many parents have been let down, unable to go back to work due to the cost of childcare.

“Unlike the Conservatives, Labour will properly fund childcare to help parents get back into work and ensure all children, no matter what their background, have access to the high quality childcare they deserve. The Conservatives are failing to deliver on early years education, there are now over 1,240 fewer designated Sure Start children’s centres than when the Conservatives entered government. It is clear Theresa May and the Conservatives can’t be trusted with our children’s futures.”

Childcare costs represent a significant proportion of family expenditure, with many families made up of two or more children saying it does not make financial sense for both parents to work. 

Research by the Family and Childcare Trust revealed that on average British parents are spending almost twice as much on part-time childcare as they do on food per year. 

In a survey conducted by the Resolution Foundation and Mumsnet, 67% of mothers in work and 64% of those not working said the high cost of childcare is a barrier to taking on more employment. 

Labour is today (Monday 29 May 2017) calling on Theresa May to come clean with the British people and answer the most pressing questions she has failed to be straight about in this campaign. 

The Conservative manifesto has betrayed Britain’s pensioners, threatened unspecified tax rises for tens of millions of working people and set out a grim future of underfunding and understaffing for our vital public services.

Given that the Conservative leader has already broken her flagship manifesto pledge on social care, we are challenging Theresa May to be straight with voters and give clear answers to the crucial questions she has continued to duck.

 Questions Theresa May must answer today:

1.     Will Theresa May confirm that ten million pensioners will lose their winter fuel payments if the Conservatives are re-elected? And if not ten million, how many will it be?

2.     At what level will the cap be set on social care costs that those with conditions such as dementia will have to pay under Conservative plans?

3.     Will Theresa May match Labour’s pledge not to raise personal National Insurance contributions, and not to raise income tax for 95 per cent of taxpayers?

4.     Will the Conservatives confirm they are planning another five years of austerity for public services, as the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) stated last week?

5.     The Conservatives have warned they will scrap free school meals for 5-7 year olds if they are re-elected. Will they now spell out a realistic costing for their school breakfast proposal now they have withdrawn their discredited 6.8p figure?

6.     Will Theresa May confirm she is proposing not a single penny of extra funding for the NHS, as the IFS has stated?

 Theresa May has a track record of breaking her promises, flip-flopping and going back on her word. Ahead of tonight’s live televised interview and Q&A, Labour is calling on the Conservative leader to be straight with people and set out exactly what she’s planning for our pensioners, working people and school children.

Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s National Election Coordinator, said:

“The Tory manifesto has plunged pensioners and working people into insecurity, and left our public services facing the risk of further crisis. Meanwhile, Theresa May refuses to answer even the most basic questions on her policies.

“Today, Labour sets out some of the most pressing questions the Tories keep dodging. So if you get a knock at the door from the Tories or are one of the few people who isn’t a Tory party member to meet Theresa May or Philip Hammond, ask them to provide answers.

“Failure to do so will lead people to draw their own conclusions. But ultimately it proves that voting for the Tories at this election is a dangerous roll of the dice for working people and pensioners.

“Their manifesto threatened to take away winter fuel allowances, ditch the triple lock and leave pensioners facing the loss of control of their homes because of social care costs. It makes clear the Tories are planning five more years of austerity for our public services, with no guarantee to not raise taxes for 95 per cent of taxpayers.

“Having broken her flagship pledge on social care just days after she launched her manifesto, Theresa May needs to give clear answers to these crucial questions and be straight with the British people about what the Tories are actually planning.”

Labour will create a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to invest in the UK’s cultural infrastructure – across arts, music, film, theatre and culture – as it sets out plans to build on Britain’s status as a world leader in culture and the creative industries.

Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and Shadow Culture Secretary, Tom Watson, will unveil the fund at an event in Hull, the UK’s 2017 City of Culture, on Monday.

Labour’s election manifesto, published last week, included a commitment to create a pupil premium to help children of primary school age fulfil their artistic potential.

Labour announces today that a £1 billion Culture Capital Fund will invest in ‘creative clusters’ across the country.

Labour will guarantee a Creative Future for All by:

* Establishing a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to support our world-leading cultural industries, which have been badly hit by Tory cuts.

The fund will be one of the largest arts infrastructure funds ever created. It will give the country’s creative sectors an opportunity to bid for extra funding and help the UK protect its status as a creative and cultural hub in the digital age.

It will protect and invest in live music venues in order to support grassroots and professional music and ensure there is a vibrant music industry in all parts of the country. Labour will review the business rates system and extend the £1,000 pub relief to help small music venues that have been hit by rate rises.

* Ensuring museums and art galleries remain free and invest in our heritage sector, which is central to the identity and economy of local communities across the country.

* Introducing a £160 million arts pupil premium for every primary school in England to boost creative education and ensure state schools have arts facilities of an equivalent standard to those available in many private schools.

Shadow Culture Secretary, Tom Watson, who is a graduate of Hull University, said:

“As a former resident I’m proud to see Hull staging world-class cultural events and that it is attracting tourists from around the world who want to visit the UK City of Culture.

“Labour believes that cities like Hull have demonstrated that creativity can drive inward investment, regeneration and tourism as well as being an important expression of local and regional identity.

“Our thriving creative industries define how we are perceived overseas and make a vital contribution to our economy.

“Under the Tories, the arts and cultural institutions have been forced to absorb huge cuts; under Labour, they will get the investment they deserve.

"Our £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund will give museums, galleries and theatres in all parts of the country access to investment that can be used to upgrade and regenerate their buildings and facilities.”

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“We want to unleash the potential of every young person not just through education but also through culture. In every one of us there is a poet, a writer, a singer of songs, an artist. But too few of us fulfil our artistic ambition.

“The arts pupil premium will allow every primary school child the chance to learn an instrument, take part in drama and dance and have regular access to a theatre, gallery or museum. Labour will deliver a creative future for all and culture for the many, not the few.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

·         Labour will introduce a £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to invest in new facilities communities can be proud of and upgrade existing cultural and creative infrastructure for the digital age. The fund will invest in creative clusters across the country, based on a similar model to business enterprise zones.

·         The Cultural Capital Fund will be administered by the Arts Council over a five-year period and help to transform the country’s cultural landscape. This will be funded from Labour’s new National Transformation Fund, announced in the manifesto last week, that will invest £250 billion over 10 years to upgrade our economy.

·         Since 2010 there are now 600 fewer music teachers, 1,200 fewer arts teachers and 1,700 fewer drama teachers in our schools, and teaching hours in arts subjects has fallen by nearly 38,000. New pledges in the Conservatives’ manifesto requiring 90 per cent of pupils to study the EBacc combination of subjects by 2025 could all but wipe out creative education in our schools. Labour will revamp the EBacc and restore the importance of creative education to the curriculum.

·         You can download Labour’s Cultural Manifesto ‘A Creative Future For All” at  www.labour.org.uk/culturemanifesto

400,000 university students will be freed from an average of around £27,000 debt this autumn if Labour is elected next month, Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, and Shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner, will announce today.

Tuition fees will be abolished from 2018 under a Labour Government. But Labour is also pledging to write off the first year of fees for students planning to start university this September.

Abolishing tuition fees will lift a total £38 billion in debt from fees over the course of the next parliament, before a penny of interest is added.

This will give 18-year-olds sitting their A levels this summer yet another reason to register to vote before tonight’s (22 May) midnight deadline and to vote Labour on 8th June.

Tuition fees have trebled to over £9,000 a year since 2012 and graduates are being held back by starting their working lives saddled with debts averaging almost £45,000.

As well as abolishing university tuition fees, Labour will restore the maintenance grants the Conservatives abolished in 2016 and, under its transformative plan for a free National Education Service, will scrap college fees for adult learners.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“The Conservatives have held students back for too long, saddling them with debt that blights the start of their working lives. Labour will lift this cloud of debt and make education free for all as part of our plan for a richer Britain for the many not the few.

“We will scrap tuition fees and ensure universities have the resources they need to continue to provide a world-class education. Students will benefit from having more money in their pockets, and we will all benefit from the engineers, doctors, teachers and scientists that our universities produce.”

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said:

“Labour believes everyone should have the chance to further their studies, 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.

“The Tories trebled tuition fees and students now rack up an average £45,000 debt. A Labour Government will stop that. If students sitting their A levels now want a say on their future they need to register to vote before tonight’s deadline and vote Labour on 8 June.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

·         Labour will abolish tuition fees for home students in England studying standard undergraduate first degrees at established universities and further education colleges from the academic year starting in 2018 – the earliest it will be possible to pass the legislation through parliament. (University is already free for EU students in Scottish universities)

·         To discourage students who are planning to start university this September from deferring until after tuition fees are removed, we will guarantee to immediately write off their first year of fees.

·         Students part way through their degree will not have to pay fees for the remainder of their course. Part-time students will be covered for the cost of their first undergraduate degree.

·         Students who have already graduated will be protected from above inflation interest rate rises on existing debt. And we will look for ways to ameliorate this debt burden in future.

·         We will seek to provide free tuition for EU students and seek reciprocal arrangements at EU universities as part of the Brexit negotiations. We will remove EU and international students from the net migration figures and preserve the current system of fees for non-EU students.

·         The average student leaves university with almost £45,000 worth of debt, which they would pay off through their lifetime. Under our plans this will be reduced by an average of more £27,000 for students who don’t qualify for a maintenance grant, and to zero for students who do.

·         We have costed the abolition of tuition fees at £9.5 billion annually in 2021/22 prices (the £11.2 billion figure for higher education listed in our Grey Book published alongside the manifesto also included £1.7 billion for maintenance grants). Over four years (from 2018/19 academic year, this is £38 billion). It will be paid for by increasing income tax for the top 5 per cent of earners and reversing the Conservatives’ cuts to corporation tax. The £9.5 billion is an estimate of the actual revenues currently being paid to universities through fees, and this money will all go directly back into universities so they will not lose out.

·         In 2015/16 there were 365,700 full-time first year students studying their first undergraduate degrees in England (Higher Education Statistics Agency). In 2014/15 there were 38,600 part-time students studying their first undergraduate degree (own calculations). Assuming student numbers stay roughly constant, approximately 400,000 students will benefit each year.

Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s National Elections Coordinator, responding to Ruth Davidson’s criticism of Tory plans to remove the Winter Fuel Allowance from some pensioners, said:

“When the Scottish Tory Leader comes out against her own Party’s attack on pensioner incomes I think it’s fair to say the policy is starting to unravel.

“The Tory attack on pensioners’ Winter Fuel Allowance is unfair and outrageous, and lays bare the threat they pose to pensioners’ security and living standards.

“The Tories should admit they’ve got it wrong, apologise and drop it immediately.”

Ends

Notes to editors

“We’ve made a different choice in Scotland in our Scottish manifesto today. We believe there shouldn’t be means testing for the winter fuel payment.”
Ruth Davidson, Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Sky News, 19 May 2017

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, speaking at the launch of The Labour Party Manifesto 2017 in Bradford, said:

***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY*** 

It’s a pleasure to be in Bradford today to launch Labour’s manifesto, “For the many not the few”.

I’m pleased to be here in Bradford University where that great Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson was the first Chancellor. Harold Wilson had a vision for Britain and created the institutions to match, like the Open University.

Today we set out vision to transform Britain for the 21^st century.

This manifesto is the first draft of a better future for the people of our country. A blueprint of what Britain could be and a pledge of the difference a Labour government can make.

Like thousands of other Labour party members, I’ve been making that case to people across the country over the last few weeks.  As this campaign has continued, for an election called by a Prime Minister with scant regard for her own solemn pledges, opinion has started to move towards Labour.

There is no great secret as to the reason.

People want a country run for the many not the few.

That is because for the last seven years our people have lived through the opposite; a Britain run for the rich, the elite and the vested interest

They have benefitted from tax cuts and bumper salaries while millions have struggled.

Whatever your age or situation, people are under pressure, struggling to make ends meet.

Our manifesto is for you.

Parents worrying about the prospects for their children and anxious about the growing needs of their own elderly parents.

Young people struggling to find a secure job and despairing of ever getting a home of their own.

Children growing up in poverty.

Students leaving college burdened with debt.

Workers who have gone years without a real pay rise coping with stretched family budgets.

Labour’s mission, over the next five years, is to change all that.

Our manifesto spells out how. With a programme that is radical and responsible.

A programme that will reverse our national priorities to put the interests of the many first.

Will change our country while managing within our means.

And will lead us through Brexit while putting the preservation of jobs first.

Let me highlight just a few of our key pledges, and believe it or not, you haven’t read them all already.

We are ruling out rises on VAT and National Insurance and on income tax for all but the richest 5% of high earners.

Labour will boost the wages of 5.7 million people earning less than the living wage to £10 an hour by 2020.

Labour will end the cuts in the National Health Service to deliver safe staffing levels and reduce waiting lists.

Labour will scrap tuition fees, lifting the debt cloud from hundreds of thousands of young people.

Labour will move towards universal childcare expanding free provision for 2, 3 and 4 year olds in the next Parliament.

Labour is guaranteeing the triple lock to protect pensioners’ incomes.

And we will build over a million new homes, at least half for social rent.

Labour makes no apology for offering new protections to people at work, including ending the scandal of zero-hour contracts.

Or for finding the resources to hire 10,000 new police officers and 3,000 new firefighters.

And we will do the smaller things that still make a real difference – like ending hospital car parking charges or introducing four extra bank holidays a year.

But we in Labour recognise that solving these problems requires a thriving economy.  One that gets our economy working again, and rises to the challenges of Brexit for jobs and investment.

For seven years the Conservatives have been holding Britain back.

Low investment, low wages, low growth.

Labour will move Britain forward with ambitious plans to unlock the country’s potential.

Labour will set up a National Investment Bank and regional development banks to finance growth and good jobs in all parts of the UK through major capital projects.

Labour will invest in our young people through a National Education Service focussed on childcare, schools and skills, giving them the capacity to make a productive contribution to tomorrow’s economy.

Labour will take our railways back into public ownership, to put the passenger first.

We will take back control of our country’s water by bringing it into regional public ownership.

And we will take a public stake in the energy sector to help keep fuel prices down and ensure a balanced and green energy policy for the future.

The Tories now want to scare us into accepting more of the same.

Only Labour has a plan ambitious enough to unleash the country’s potential. 

And only Labour has a plan to make Brexit work for ordinary people.  We are clear:  The choice is now a Labour Brexit that puts jobs first, or a Tory Brexit that will be geared to the interests of the City, and will risk making Britain a low-wage tax haven.

As we leave the European Union, because that is what the people have voted for, only Labour will negotiate a deal that preserves jobs and access to the single market, preserves rights and does not plunge our country into a race to the bottom.

All this is costed, as the documents accompanying our manifesto make clear.  Our revenue-raising plans ensure we can embark on this ambitious programme without jeopardising our national finances.

We are asking the better-off and the big corporations to pay a little bit more – and, of course, to stop dodging their tax obligations in the first place.

And in the longer term we look to a faster rate of growth, driven by increased private and public investment, to keep our accounts in shape.

This is a programme of hope.

The Tory campaign, by contrast, is built on one word: Fear

What would another 5 years of Conservative government mean for Britain?

Just look back at the last seven:

More children in poverty.

Fewer young couples able to buy their first home.

More people queuing at food banks.

Fewer police on the beat … fewer firefighters too.

More people are in work but they’re not getting the pay or the hours to make ends meet.

More young people are in debt.

Will the Tories change their spots?  Don’t bank on it.

Their record says they wont.

Theresa May will disagree of course.

So I say to her today:  Prime Minister, come out of hiding and let’s have that debate on television so millions can make up their minds.

What are you afraid of?  It’s not too late

Let’s debate our two manifestos

Have the argument

I am confident that once the British people get the chance to study the issues

Look at the promises

They will decide that Britain has been held back by the Tories.

That the few have prevailed over the many for too long.

And that they will decide it is now time for Labour.

Our country will only work for the many not the few if opportunity is in the hands of the many. So our manifesto is a plan for everyone to have a fair chance to get on in life, because our country will only succeed when everyone succeeds.

Thank you.

View the Labour Party manifesto here>

Download Funding Britain’s Future here>

The Tories are today claiming that they will ‘continue increasing the National Living Wage’. However, hidden in the small print of their press release they let it slip that they are planning to water down the existing National Living Wage.

This change would leave the average full-time worker on the National Living Wage £2,283 worse off by 2020.

Earlier in the Parliament, George Osborne announced that the Tories’ so-called National Living Wage (NLW) was to hit £9 per hour by 2020. To get here the Tories promised that it would reach the level equivalent to “over 60 per cent of median hourly earnings” by 2020.

Today, they’ve broken this promise and changed their commitment to increasing the National Living Wage only “in line with median incomes”.

This means that the National Living Wage will be £8.20 in 2020 as opposed to the promise of £9 per hour under Osborne.

In contrast, Labour is committed to a Real Living Wage of £10 per hour by 2020.

Ian Lavery, Labour’s National Campaign Co-ordinator, commenting, said: 

“Theresa May is taking working people for fools.

“This morning she claimed she was standing up for working people, but hidden in the small print of her announcement is a cut to working people’s incomes.

“The Tories cynical ploy to pull the wool over voter’s eyes won’t work.

“Today’s ridiculous claims are yet more evidence that this election is a choice between a Tory party that fails working people and a Labour Party that will stand up for working people and deliver a better, fairer Britain.”

A Labour Government will protect the incomes of twelve million pensioners by legislating to keep the ‘triple lock’, Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, will say today.

Under the Conservatives’ watch 300,000 more pensioners are in poverty, yet the Conservative Party has failed to commit to the ‘triple lock’ on state pensions; a policy which protects pensioners’ standard of living by guaranteeing that their incomes rise to meet the cost of living.

A Labour Government will protect pensioners by legislating to guarantee the triple lock, and committing to keep the Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes.  

Meeting pensioners in Norwich on Saturday, Jeremy Corbyn will say:

“The Conservative’s failure to guarantee a decent standard of living for older people, Tory cuts to social care and their failure to protect the NHS are proof that the Tories’ are abandoning older people.

“With more pensioners in poverty under the Conservatives, it is clear that a Labour Government is necessary to provide a secure and dignified retirement for the many who have contributed all their lives.

“Labour will legislate to guarantee the triple lock on state pensions over the next parliament, and we’ll protect the Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes.”

Labour’s Campaign Coordinators Andrew Gwynne and Ian Lavery will today unveil a campaign poster highlighting how Britain has been held back by the Conservatives.  

Ian Lavery will say:

“Millions of people feel they are living in a country where they are held back from fulfilling their potential.

“They don’t feel secure in their jobs and they can’t remember the last time they had a pay rise. Their children are struggling to learn in crowded classrooms, and their hearts sink when they see what it costs to rent or buy a home.

“Many who have saved and planned for their retirement find they have to work longer because the state pension age is running away from them.

“The Tories have given tax breaks to the richest and big business, while failing to invest in services, skills, infrastructure and the new industries of the future.

“If the Tories are re-elected, things will only get worse. You can’t trust the Tories with your future or with the NHS, your child’s future or your pension.

“The Conservatives have held back Britain for too long. Labour will build a fairer Britain for the many not the few. We can do it together. Don’t let them hold you back.”

Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour’s Shadow Secretary for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in response to the Conservatives’ announcement on an energy price cap, said:

“This is desperate stuff from the Tories, re-announcing something they tried to get a headline for just a fortnight ago. But just as when they announced it last time, there’s still no proper detail nor any real commitment to helping working people.

“When the Tories say they’ll ‘cap’ bills, the question they need to answer is whether they can guarantee bills won’t go up for people next year – that’s the real test. A cap suggests a maximum amount that can be charged, not a promise that bills won’t go up year on year.

“The reality is that the Tories aren’t offering anything for working people. Their record is one of failure and broken promises, letting ordinary people down at every turn. Over and over they’ve promised to get bills down but under them households are almost £900 worse off due to increase energy bills since 2010.

"Only Labour can be trusted to deliver a country for the many rather than just the few. All the Tories offer is broken promises and a record which has seen working people worse off.”