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Category: Speeches

  • Kate Green – 2020 Comments on Keeping Schools Safe

    Kate Green – 2020 Comments on Keeping Schools Safe

    The comments made by Kate Green, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, on 1 September 2020.

    The learning that children have lost in recent months shows that keeping schools safely open to all must be a national priority in the months ahead.

    When schools are closed, we see deep inequalities become more entrenched, and those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds lose out most. If the Conservative Government cannot guarantee pupils the education they deserve, then they will fail a whole generation of children.

    Young people’s futures cannot be held back by Conservative incompetence. This is a wakeup call for ministers. They must ensure that schools stay open, that parents and teachers are supported, and that pupils get all the help they need to catch up.

  • Louise Haigh – 2020 Comments on Potential Closure of Support Service for Terror Victims

    Louise Haigh – 2020 Comments on Potential Closure of Support Service for Terror Victims

    The comments made by Louise Haigh, the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on 1 September 2020.

    The press release noted “For two decades the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation, established in the names of the two boys murdered by the IRA in Warrington in 1993, has provided a free national support service for victims of terrorism in the UK, including trauma-informed health and wellbeing services.”.

    The death of Tim and Johnathan was an unthinkable tragedy, and the work their families have done to support victims of terror in the three decades since has made an extraordinary difference to thousands of people.

    In the week that would have been Tim’s fortieth birthday, it is a real insult that the support service established in his memory is under threat because the Prime Minister simply will not keep his promises.

    In this week of all weeks, the Prime Minister must act and secure the future of the support service and the vital work it does.

  • Rosena Allin-Khan – 2020 Comments on Suicide Figures

    Rosena Allin-Khan – 2020 Comments on Suicide Figures

    The comments made by Rosena Allin-Khan, the Shadow Mental Health Minister, on 1 September 2020.

    This worrying upward trend in England highlights the importance of taking suicide and mental ill health seriously.

    In their 2019 manifesto, the Conservatives promised action for mental health services – yet, in the midst of a health crisis that has separated many of us from our loved ones and support networks, they have been silent.

    Suicide is both a public health and social inequality issue, and with the right interventions it is preventable – today’s figures must be a wake up call for the government.

  • Alok Sharma – 2020 Comments on Green Home Grants

    Alok Sharma – 2020 Comments on Green Home Grants

    The comments made by Alok Sharma, the Secretary of State for Business and Energy, on 28 August 2020.

    Green Homes Grants are a key part of our plans to build back greener, helping make 600,000 homes more energy efficient with government vouchers, while supporting 100,000 skilled jobs and supporting our transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

    From today people will have the chance to see how this scheme could help save money on their energy bills and connect to trusted local tradespeople across the country, so they are ready for the scheme’s launch in September.

  • Lucy Powell – 2020 Comments on Workers Returning to Offices

    Lucy Powell – 2020 Comments on Workers Returning to Offices

    The comments made by Lucy Powell, the Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers, on 27 August 2020.

    It beggars belief that the Government are threatening people like this during a pandemic. Forcing people to choose between their health and their job is unconscionable. Number 10 should condemn this briefing and categorically rule out any such campaign.

  • Lucy Powell – 2020 Comments on the Automotive Sector

    Lucy Powell – 2020 Comments on the Automotive Sector

    Comments made by Lucy Powell, the Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers, on 27 August 2020.

    The UK’s world-leading automotive industry has been rocked by coronavirus and livelihoods are on the line. But Ministers won’t listen to reason and are refusing to recognise some sectors have been hit harder than others.

    They must urgently target support at the sectors that need it with a focus on creating skilled, green jobs – and do right by the communities across the UK they promised to protect.

    Anything less would be a betrayal of many communities which helped get Boris Johnson elected.

  • Cat Smith – 2020 Comments on Children Society Report

    Cat Smith – 2020 Comments on Children Society Report

    The comments made by Cat Smith, the Shadow Minister for Young People, on 28 August 2020.

    This eye-opening [Good Childhood] report lays bare the stark pressures and difficulties faced by young people in the UK, compared to those in other European countries.

    Young people and children have been left behind since long before the Coronavirus crisis. With children in the UK ranking lowest for life satisfaction across Europe, the Government remain utterly out-of-touch with the real struggles faced by young people.

    The Government must finally provide a comprehensive measurement of children’s well-being in order to properly quantify changes and target resources.

  • Bill Esterson – 2020 Comments on Ed Davey

    Bill Esterson – 2020 Comments on Ed Davey

    The comments made on Twitter by Bill Esterson, the Labour MP for Sefton Central, on 27 August 2020.

    None of this sanctimonious self justification. Ed Davey was a cabinet minister in Cameron’s government. He supported austerity, the Health and Social Care Act and Gove’s destruction of our schools system. The Lib-Dems were willing Tory accomplices and Davey was at the forefront.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2020 Comments on the Appointment of Tony Abbott

    Emily Thornberry – 2020 Comments on the Appointment of Tony Abbott

    The comments made by Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, on 26 August 2020.

    Any way you look at it, this is an absolutely staggering appointment. On a personal level, it is shameful that Boris Johnson thinks this offensive, aggressive, leering, gaffe-prone misogynist is the right person to represent our country overseas.

    And on a professional level, this is someone with no hands-on experience of negotiating trade agreements, who denies the climate change that we believe should be at the heart of our trade policy, and who clearly has no concept of the importance of Britain’s trade with the EU.

    He was ousted by his own colleagues after just two years in power, and rejected by his own constituents just last year. They are the people who know him best, and wanted rid of him, yet here we are now, hiring him to negotiate our trade deals around the world.

    It’s yet more breathtaking incompetence from a government that has turned it into an art-form.

  • Kate Green – 2020 Comments on Sacking of Jonathan Slater

    Kate Green – 2020 Comments on Sacking of Jonathan Slater

    The comments made by Kate Green, the Shadow Education Secretary, on 26 August 2020.

    Under this Government civil servants have time and time again taken the fall for the incompetence and failures of Ministers.

    Parents will be looking on in dismay at a government in complete chaos just a matter of days before children will return to schools.

    Leadership requires a sense of responsibility and a willingness to be held accountable, qualities this Prime Minister and his ministers utterly lack.