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  • Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Government’s New Emissions Target

    Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Government’s New Emissions Target

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 19 April 2021.

    The character of this government on climate change is now clear: targets without delivery. So while any strengthening of our targets is the right thing to do, the Government can’t be trusted to match rhetoric with reality.

    Ministers have failed to bring forward an ambitious green recovery, passing up three major fiscal events to do so. They are flirting with proposals for a new deep coal mine, axed the vital housing retrofit scheme, and are way off track for our net zero targets.

    We need a government that treats the climate emergency as the emergency it is. That means greater ambition than this government matched with much more decisive action. This year, as hosts of COP26, the UK has a particular responsibility to lead the world and show the way forward for a greener future. This Government isn’t up to the task.

  • Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Business Start-Ups

    Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Business Start-Ups

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 19 April 2021.

    To rebuild our economy, we need to harness the dynamism and creativity of our nation’s entrepreneurs. They need strategic and targeted investment, allocated based on the strengths and drive of potential business founders, not the favours or promises of former business contacts.

    These business founders and small businesses across the country should be at the heart of our economic recovery, yet too many are being held back because of the unfair distribution of funding to help them start up and scale up.

    There are hardworking and innovative business founders being left out in the cold by the Conservatives. With Labour, they will get the backing they need to succeed.

  • Keir Starmer – 2021 Comments on Business Start-Ups

    Keir Starmer – 2021 Comments on Business Start-Ups

    The comments made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 19 April 2021.

    The drop in business birth rates is in no way symptomatic of a drop in ideas, drive, creativity, or commitment from British entrepreneurs. But under this Conservative government, the next generation of business founders are being let down.

    Business growth is the engine of our economy and it is only by backing aspiring founders that we can create jobs and rebuild a secure economy. Labour backs business and will provide start-up loans to create 100,000 new businesses across the UK over the next parliament.

  • Kate Green – 2021 Comments on Education Policy Institute’s Report

    Kate Green – 2021 Comments on Education Policy Institute’s Report

    The comments made by Kate Green, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, on 20 April 2021.

    Boris Johnson has betrayed children by overpromising and under-delivering on catch-up.

    After a decade of neglect of children’s learning, with rising class sizes and increasing child poverty, the Conservatives’ catch-up funding amounts to a measly 43p per child a day. Their inadequate, poorly targeted tutoring programme is leaving thousands without support and they have no plan for children’s wellbeing despite having had months away from their friends.

    Labour would put children at the heart of our national recovery. We need catch-up breakfast clubs and a national strategy to ensure every child recovers from the pandemic and is supported to reach their full potential.

  • Luke Pollard – 2021 Comments on Labour Becoming the Party of the Countryside

    Luke Pollard – 2021 Comments on Labour Becoming the Party of the Countryside

    The comments made by Luke Pollard, the Shadow DEFRA Secretary, on 20 April 2021.

    Farm payments need reform, but it is extraordinary to take a quarter of a billion pounds out of the rural economy this year alone, risking as many as 9,500 jobs and pushing family farms to the brink.

    The Government needs to get a grip on this, review it, and provide the security that our rural communities desperately need as they recover and rebuild.

    Labour’s Rural England Policy Review will ensure that our next manifesto provides as much hope and opportunity to rural communities as it does to those living in towns and cities.

  • David Lammy – 2021 Comments on the Derek Chauvin Murder Trial

    David Lammy – 2021 Comments on the Derek Chauvin Murder Trial

    The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, on 21 April 2021.

    No judgement can ever make up for murder, but it means everything that justice has been served tonight for George Floyd.

    Let this send a clear message both in the USA and across the world: Black Lives Matter.

  • Lucy Powell – 2021 Comments on Liberty Steel

    Lucy Powell – 2021 Comments on Liberty Steel

    The comments made by Lucy Powell, the Shadow Business Minister, on 21 April 2021.

    Liberty Steel plants support thousands of steel and supply jobs in towns across the country, and are of vital strategic importance for our economic prosperity and national security. Ministers are not spectators, they must intervene early to save these plants, or we’ll see businesses in places like Hartlepool, Scunthorpe, Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Newport go bust as invoices go unpaid.

    Steel communities have helped to build Britain. The Conservatives must now back British steel to secure its future, with real action after 10 years of neglect. This means a proper plan to decarbonise the sector, boost business competitiveness, and ensure UK government infrastructure projects use British steel in their projects.

  • Jo Stevens – 2021 Comments on European Super League

    Jo Stevens – 2021 Comments on European Super League

    The comments made by Jo Stevens, the Shadow Minister for Sport, on 20 April 2021.

    Proposals for a breakaway league are nothing short of an attempt to stitch up competition for a few elite clubs at the top. That’s why Labour has today asked the CMA to investigate them.

    We urge supporters across the country to add their names to this letter and show the groundswell of feeling against these damaging proposals, that would do immense damage to football and communities across the country.

    This must now be a watershed moment. We cannot simply go back to the status quo in which smaller clubs struggle to stay afloat and fans are excluded from decisions. The Government must get on with its fan-led review and ensure that football is given back to the people who built it.

  • Jonathan Reynolds – 2021 Comments on ONS Labour Market Statistics

    Jonathan Reynolds – 2021 Comments on ONS Labour Market Statistics

    The comments made by Jonathan Reynolds, the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on 20 April 2021.

    Unemployment is persistently high yet the Government’s programmes to get people back into work are still not up and running. These figures show more than half of the people losing their employment were under-25 but the Conservative’s struggling Kickstart scheme has created just 6,000 jobs.

    Those who have lost their jobs deserve so much better – Labour’s ‘Jobs Promise’ would guarantee young people out of work for six months a training or job placement and make sure no one is left out of work for more than a year.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Award of Government Contracts

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Award of Government Contracts

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 20 April 2021.

    It says everything about the rampant Tory sleaze consuming this government that such a huge conflict of interest was revealed by mistake.

    The Government keeps saying that it wants to be transparent on deals – but the redactions on this contract show this was a deliberate cover up. They’ve been caught red handed.

    It’s clear it’s one rule for the Conservative Party and their friends and donors, and another for everyone else.