Tag: Ed Miliband

  • Ed Miliband – 2015 Keynote Speech on the NHS

    Ed Miliband – 2015 Keynote Speech on the NHS

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the then Leader of the Opposition, on 23 April 2015.

    It is great to be here with you at Manchester Metropolitan University.

    What a fantastic turn-out. And I particularly want to thank you for having us on exam day.

    And I want to thank John Brookes the Vice Chancellor here at the University.

    John’s going to be retiring in May after 10 years, so let’s pay tribute to him today.

    And let’s also pay tribute to all of the brilliant student nurses here today who are training to work in our health service. Thank you.

    The general election is getting closer and closer.

    There is just over two weeks to go now.

    Just over two weeks to decide what the future looks like for our country.

    Not simply a competition between parties.

    But a choice between two different visions of the country.

    Carrying on with the Tory way, hoping that the success of a few at the top will somehow be enough for us all to succeed, and cutting our public services back to the very bone.

    Or a Labour vision.

    A vision of a recovery that reaches not just the City of London but the front door of every working family.

    And a vision that knows we must invest in the future of our vital public services.

    And there is nowhere this choice matters more than the NHS.

    I don’t need to tell you here that the NHS is the most precious institution in our country.

    We all have our own reasons why we love the NHS.

    It looks after us when we’re born.

    It cares for us when we’re sick.

    And it so often cares for us also in our final days and weeks of life.

    It is the proudest achievement in our country and the envy of the world.

    But we know too that the NHS is facing one of the greatest threats since its foundation.

    We know it has been going backwards under this government.

    Harder and harder to see a GP.

    More and more elderly people who can’t get the care they need at home.

    And when that happens, the problems pile up in hospitals.

    Patients stuck outside hospital in ambulances because A&E is full.

    Seriously ill people waiting for treatment lying on trolleys in corridors for hours.

    So often doctors, nurses and midwives are rushed off their feet.

    Unable to do the job that they are so well-trained to do.

    Two-thirds of nurses today say patients are missing out on care because there just aren’t enough nurses on the wards.

    Today we hear the news that one-in-three NHS Trusts were investigated last year over safe staffing.

    And none of this has happened by accident.

    It has happened as a direct result of choices this government has made.

    A government that has wasted billions on a top-down reorganisation that no-one wanted.

    A government that has cut nurse training, meaning we don’t now have enough nurses.

    It is a government that has cut back on GP services and care for the elderly, increasing the pressure on hospitals.

    And it is a government that has overseen a creeping privatisation of our NHS.

    With a Health and Social Care Act that sees precious NHS resources spent on accountants and competition lawyers.

    Friends, that’s not the NHS I believe in.

    It is not the NHS you believe in.

    It is not the NHS the British people want to see.

    Of course now there is an election on again, it is all change.

    The Conservatives are committed to doubling the spending cuts next year, even deeper spending cuts than we’ve seen in the last parliament.

    But now they want you to believe they’re going to spend more on the NHS.

    With money they can’t identify, from a place they cannot name.

    These are promises that can’t be believed.

    They are false promises with an expiry date of May 8th stamped on them.

    And you know, nothing is more dangerous for the future of our NHS than pretending you are going to pay for it with an IOU.

    And what do the Conservatives say when asked about where they will find the money?

    “Just look at our record.”

    Well, we have.

    And it’s failed.

    I have a direct message for the British people:

    For five years, the NHS has gone backwards.

    For the next five if the Conservatives are returned to power the NHS will be starved of funds, it will face a rising tide of privatisation.

    This is the truth.

    David Cameron is now a mortal danger to the NHS.

    We have a fortnight to fight for our NHS.

    We have a fortnight to rescue our NHS.

    That’s why the country needs Labour’s immediate rescue plan for the National Health Service.

    The central idea is this: that we must invest in the NHS with a fully funded plan, so it has time to care.

    And we must join up services at every stage, from home to hospital, so you get the care you need, where you need it.

    That is how we make our NHS sustainable and successful for years to come.

    So we’ll have a Mansion tax on properties worth over £2 million.

    We will raise extra revenue from the tobacco companies.

    And we’ll do something the Conservatives would never do: we’ll clamp down on tax avoidance, including by the hedge funds.

    And we will use that money for a plan to transform services, and have 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more doctors, 5,000 more care-workers and 3,000 more midwives.

    So that we have what every nurse wants, every doctor wants, every patient wants:

    An NHS with time to care.

    And this investment will not be for an NHS that stands still but one that keeps up with the challenges of our time.

    Let me tell you what I have learnt most from talking to people in the NHS.

    The most important principle is that the success of what goes on inside a hospital depends on what goes on outside in the community.

    When people can’t get to see their GP, many go to A&E instead.

    When problems with mental health aren’t spotted early at school or work, people can end up in crisis, needing more intensive support.

    When elderly people can’t get the care they need at home, they are more likely to struggle, grow ill or have a fall, and end up in hospital.

    In each and every case, failing to act early is worse for the person involved and it costs more for the NHS too.

    We have to give people the right care at the right time in the right place.

    And that is what we will do:

    We will hire more doctors and by saving resources on privatisation and bureaucracy, we will guarantee everyone who wants it an appointment with a GP in 48 hours.

    Our new care workers will be a new arm of the NHS, to help elderly people with the greatest needs.

    And we will meet the central challenge of the 21st century with integrated, not fragmented services.

    We’ll put the right values at the heart of the NHS:

    Care, compassion and co-operation.

    Not competition, fragmentation and privatisation.

    So we will repeal the Health and Social Care Act.

    But to save the NHS from the trouble it’s in, we can’t wait.

    With A&E in crisis, staff shortages, and hospitals weighed down by large deficits, this plan has to start immediately.

    Straight away.

    With real money, right now.

    So today I can announce in our first 100 days, our first Budget, our first year in office, we’ll begin to bring in funds from the Mansion Tax and tobacco levy .

    And we will use that money to support the NHS with our immediate Rescue Plan.

    An emergency round of nurse recruitment.

    Funding for 1,000 extra training places this year.

    Getting extra resources into the NHS right from the very start.

    First things first: We’ll save the NHS.

    To begin easing frontline pressures as soon as we can.

    To begin bringing down the spiralling bill for agency staff.

    To begin opening the doors of places just like this to more talented young people.

    Giving them the opportunities they need.

    And to do this on their first day in office, Labour ministers will instruct officials to write to colleges and universities, and call on them to reopen admissions for highly-oversubscribed nursing courses this year.

    And we’ll take further action too, so we can get more nurses on the wards straight away, we’ll persuade nurses to stay in practice and to return to practice.

    This is part of our plan for 20,000 more nurses.

    And let me say to all of the student nurses here today, that by putting in more resources, it will mean that there are jobs for you to go to in the NHS.

    Using your dedication, your commitment and your compassion for the health of our country.

    And that is only the start of our rescue plan for the NHS.

    We are also going to begin immediate planning to avoid an A&E crisis for the coming winter.

    Improving GP access and ensuring there are GPs in all A&Es.

    Increasing the numbers of clinically-trained NHS staff on the 111 phoneline.

    And we’ll take action to tackle the increasing scandal of ‘delayed discharges’, where patients end up stuck in hospital when they could be being looked after at home.

    And we’ll immediately halt the cost and chaos of privatisation in our National Health Service.

    With a Bill to Parliament to repeal the Health and Social Care Act within the first 100 days of a Labour government.

    Because the right principles and the right care go hand in hand in our NHS.

    So this is our plan.

    And as I look around this room today, I know that you are the future of our NHS.

    We have the best doctors and nurses in the world.

    The pride of our country.

    Our job – my job as Prime Minister – would be to help you do all you can to make the difference.

    To care.

    To keep our country well.

    A better plan for the NHS today.

    A better plan for the NHS in the future.

    Labour’s commitment to the NHS is part of who we are.

    We’ve got just 16 days to start to make that difference.

    Let’s not let the NHS slip further and further backwards.

    Let’s show that the idea that was right for our parents and our grandparents, is right for our children and grandchildren too.

    Let’s rescue our NHS.

    Let’s make sure it is there for our country.

    Let’s elect a Labour government.

  • Ed Miliband – 2015 Comments on Cancer Treatment in the NHS

    Ed Miliband – 2015 Comments on Cancer Treatment in the NHS

    The comments made by Ed Miliband on 23 April 2015.

    The NHS needs a real plan with real money right now – not an IOU.

    Yesterday I set out our NHS Rescue Plan for our first 100 days, our first Budget and our first year in office. Now I want to set out the next stage of our fully-funded plan, an investment of £150 million a year, every year in the key equipment patients need to get quick access to cancer tests and improve early diagnosis.

    There can be nothing more worrying for patients and their families than waiting to hear if you have this terrible disease. Speeding up cancer tests will help reduce the anxiety of waiting for a test result, improve early diagnosis, and ensure those who need it can start treatment sooner.

    And we know that early diagnosis dramatically improves the chances of successful treatment while saving the NHS on the costs of late intervention.

    So we are raising money through a Mansion Tax, closing loopholes enjoyed by the hedge funds and imposing a new levy on tobacco firms – to pay for the equipment needed to deliver our guarantee of one-week cancer tests.

    What a contrast with the Tories who promised extra money before for cancer treatment but ended up cutting cancer budgets. They have run a government that has taken the NHS backwards and now we have the shabby sight of them sneaking out evidence of their own failure on cancer treatment under cover of darkness and dissolution, hoping no-one will notice.

    I’ve got news for David Cameron: the game’s up, you broke your promises on the NHS before and no one will believe you again in the future.

  • Ed Miliband – 2015 Comments on Conservative Spending Cuts

    Ed Miliband – 2015 Comments on Conservative Spending Cuts

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the then Leader of the Opposition, on 23 April 2015.

    This General Election is coming down to a straight choice about who will stand up for working families: a choice between another five years of a recovery just reaching big firms in the City of London with the Tories – or Labour’s better plan to ensure the recovery reaches the front doors of working people across Britain.

    And, with two weeks to go, it’s time that choice was made plain and clear. The Tories want to pretend that another five years of their failing plan is the route to the good life. But the truth is they are engaged in a grand deception.

    David Cameron is running a desperate campaign, talking about anything but their record of failure or their plans for the future. They might not want to talk it, but we will.

    The Tories are committed to the most extreme spending plans of any political party in generations.

    It is a plan so extreme that IMF figures show Britain would be facing the deepest cuts over the next three years of any advanced country in the world.

    It is a plan so extreme that far from protecting the NHS they would end up cutting the NHS.

    It is a plan so extreme that it wouldn’t mean three years of the good life, it would mean three years of hard times.

    Maybe not for some of the rich and powerful, who have done so well with the last five years of the Tories.

    But it would mean hard times for the working families of Britain, who put in the hours, pay their taxes and play their part.

    It would mean hard times for young people just starting out in life and wondering if they will ever be given a decent chance.

    And it will mean hard times for the NHS that we all rely on. David Cameron has broken all those promises he made before the last election.

    He promised there would be no more top-down re-organisations and then wasted billions on the biggest the NHS has ever seen.

    He stood outside a hospital with a sign that said there would be no cuts and no closures – only to shut that very same A&E.

    He said there would be no return to people waiting hours on end in A&E. But under his government, A&E targets are in tatters and patients are waiting longer and longer to be seen.

    He promised extra money for frontline services like cancer treatment but ended up cutting cancer budgets.

    And now in this campaign, he’s at it again. After five years of failure, he wants us to believe the NHS is safe in his hands. He wants us to believe he’s going to increase funding for the NHS. When he can’t tell us where a single penny of the money is coming from. You can’t save the NHS with an IOU and you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.

  • Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on Furlough Support

    Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on Furlough Support

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on 31 July 2020.

    Many businesses still have little or no cash coming in, but are trying to do the right thing and save their employees’ jobs. They now face the stark choice of letting go of their staff or facing a hefty financial burden to keep them on.

    Businesses in vastly different sectors and circumstances should not be treated in this uniform way, and it is clearly unfair and illogical for those employers still locked down and unable to trade. Unless Ministers recognise the scale of the jobs crisis and change course they will force employers to make cuts, and be culpable for thousands of workers across the country losing their jobs and livelihoods.

    Labour is calling on the Government to end their damaging blanket approach to ending furlough support before it is too late, and to target support at the hardest hit sectors. This would encourage businesses to stick with workers and not make them redundant now, which is inevitable unless government changes course.

  • Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments about Loans to Businesses in Difficulty

    Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments about Loans to Businesses in Difficulty

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary, on 30 July 2020.

    Any help in breaking down the obstacles to loans is welcome but this has all taken far too long with too many businesses left out in the cold. Time will tell whether this sorts out the growing backlog of CBILs loans.

    There also remain serious, unaddressed problems of loans for larger firms, CBILs, and growing evidence of firms being shut out of bounce back loans unless they are an existing customer of a major high street bank.

    Every week that passes with these problems being allowed to continue puts at risk the future of businesses, the livelihoods of workers and the strength of our economy.

  • Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on the UK’s Energy Statistics

    Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on the UK’s Energy Statistics

    Comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary, on 30 July 2020.

    The figures are moving in the right direction, but not yet at the pace befitting the scale of the climate crisis facing us all.

    As COP26 hosts, the UK should be blazing the trail in the global fight against climate change with a Green New Deal. Yet we are falling behind our European neighbours, whose investment in a green recovery has dwarfed this government’s.

    With billions of taxpayer pounds being channelled by ministers into fossil fuels abroad and the UK still off track for meeting our targets, the Government’s actions are clearly still too piecemeal and inconsistent.

  • Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on Amazon Offering Free Food Deliveries

    Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on Amazon Offering Free Food Deliveries

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary, on 29 July 2020.

    The food retail sector has played a hugely important role during the Covid-19 pandemic, from those working in the supply chain, to supermarket staff and delivery van drivers.

    The pandemic has changed how people live, work and shop, and retailers have adapted in response, with grocery sales helping drive up retail figures.

    The world increasingly moving online means scope for innovation, but there must be a level playing field between the high street and online retail. Time after time the Tories have disadvantaged businesses based on bricks compared to businesses based on clicks.

  • Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on the Largest Recession for 300 Years

    Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on the Largest Recession for 300 Years

    Text of comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on 28 July 2020.

    While it’s welcome that retail sales figures are up, we cannot be complacent with many parts of the sector still struggling. These figures reinforce the cause for concern for many non-food retailers including clothing, furniture and shoe shops.

    The UK is facing the biggest recession in 300 years and we are seeing a wave of redundancies. High streets are the backbone of communities across the country, and their continued vitality is absolutely essential to local economies and livelihoods.

    If the government is serious about protecting the high street, they should back up their words with deeds. Labour is calling on ministers to put in place a new £1.7 billion fightback fund, which will give local communities the flexibility to support their local businesses.

  • Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on Government’s Green Jobs Announcement

    Ed Miliband – 2020 Comments on Government’s Green Jobs Announcement

    Below is the text of the comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 6 July 2020.

    We have consistently called for a recovery which has energy efficiency at its heart, and will welcome any measures which achieve that.

    However, this is not a comprehensive plan. It appears there is almost nothing for the people who rent the 8.5 million homes in the social rented sector and private rented sector, which has the worst energy efficiency standards. That means one third of people are left out.

    It also needs to be part of a much broader and bigger scale strategy for getting back on track for net zero which includes a zero carbon army of young people getting back to work, investment in nature conservation, driving forward renewable energy, helping our manufacturers be part of the green transition and a plan for our transport network.

    The French government has promised 15 billion euros for a green recovery, the German government 40 billion euros. The UK government £3 billion so far. When the moment demands the Government creates the most ambitious green recovery possible, the Government has not so far risen to the challenge.

  • Ed Miliband – 2020 Speech on the Business and Planning Bill

    Ed Miliband – 2020 Speech on the Business and Planning Bill

    Below is the text of the speech made by Ed Miliband, the Labour MP for Doncaster North, in the House of Commons on 29 June 2020.

    May I start by thanking the Business Secretary for the constructive conversations that he and I have had on the Bill? As he knows, we support the measures contained in it.

    The wider context to this Bill is the economic crisis that we face, the scale of which we have not seen for a very long time. As an Opposition, we have tried to work constructively with Government. Indeed, we have welcomed a number of steps that the Government have taken. We called for the furlough scheme and indeed have welcomed it, though we believe that too many people remain excluded from support. We called for the 100% underwriting of Government-backed loans, and we have welcomed the bounce back loans, too. We have also supported the Government on the difficult decision to move from 2 metres to 1 metre-plus where 2 metres cannot be observed, although we do have concerns about the test, track and trace system.

    I hope that we can agree that the past few months have shown the power of Government to step in and protect jobs and businesses at a time of crisis. My case today is that that power has not gone away, and neither has the need for it to be exercised. The Government must not shrink from that, because, let us be clear, we are not at the end of this economic crisis, but just at the beginning of it.

    Let me deal first with the provisions in the Bill. It is a short Bill and there is a large degree of agreement on it. The headline provisions, as the Secretary of State has said, will enable the hospitality industry to reopen quickly and serve a greater number of customers in a safe environment. We welcome the temporary loosening of planning regulations to enable bars, restaurants and cafés to serve customers outside their premises. I take the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier) has made about the need for some caution here. It is important that local authorities continue to have discretion in these matters because they are best placed to make the judgments about the local impacts. It is also right to put on record the concerns of the shop workers’ union, USDAW, which has worried about the safety of staff. The guidance is very clear about the mitigation and reduction of risk that is needed if 1 metre-plus is in place, and I am sure the Secretary of State agrees that that is really important, and that it is also very important that the Health & Safety Executive takes a tough line in enforcing safety as well.

    We also welcome the measures in enabling construction sites to get back to work more easily through extended working hours. Again, and I am sure that Members across the House will agree with me, it is in the interests of local residents that local authorities have discretion in these matters.

    Meg Hillier

    I think we agree about the need for local authorities to have discretion, but they also need resources. In my borough, we have more than 1,300 licensed premises in a very small area of London, and a lot of licensing officers are needed just to deal with the flow of applications. Does my right hon. Friend not think that the Government need to address that?

    Edward Miliband

    My hon. Friend in her customary eloquent way anticipates my next point. We have seen—and I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed), the shadow Secretary of State for local government, for giving me the exact figures—£10 billion of costs loaded on to local authorities during this crisis, and only £3.2 billion provided by Government, despite the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government saying that the Government would stand behind councils and give them the funding they need. We have another Bill that puts yet more pressure on local authorities, but with no clear plan about how they will be reimbursed, and our new clause 5 speaks to that issue.

    We also welcome the changes to transport licensing and the removal of the unfair relationship provision in the Consumer Credit Act to ensure that bounce-back loans are more easily accessed. I am grateful to the Secretary of State for the detailed discussions that we had about that particular provision.

    Those are the main provisions of the Bill and, as I said, there is cross-party agreement on them. Obviously, there will be detailed discussions in Committee. However, I have to say to the Secretary of State and the House that we are under an illusion if we think that the measures in this Bill will go much of the way towards addressing the crisis that we face: 4 July represents a reopening of pubs and restaurants, but it does not represent recovery.

    It is important to note that many sections of our economy employing hundreds of thousands of people, including gyms, leisure centres, live entertainment venues, beauty salons, conference facilities, night clubs and swimming pools, will still not be able to open for public health reasons. We support those public health decisions. Other parts of our economy will open only with severe restrictions, including large parts of our hospitality industry, which employs 3 million people or one in 10 of the whole workforce. The British Beer and Pub Association says that 25% of pubs will not be able to reopen even at 1 metre. The Government themselves acknowledge, in the scientific assessment of the change to 1 metre, that the hospitality industry will lose 25% to 40% of its revenue even at 1 metre distancing. That revenue translates into a risk to hundreds of thousands of jobs. Live performance remains prohibited, which affects the theatre sector, employing 290,000 people. Manufacturers, too, are reeling from the fall in domestic and worldwide demand.

    I say all that not to cast doubt on the public health measures being taken or to speak against the Bill, but to point to the wider context, which is that the Government are taking a one-size-fits-all approach to the furlough, for example, demanding an employer contribution from August and a cliff edge at the end of October. The shadow business Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell), received this letter from a venue in Manchester in the past week:

    “As the Government furlough scheme draws to a close, I will be making very difficult decisions this week so that I can give notice during the period of 80% furlough contribution to commence a redundancy consultation with the majority of my venue staff. With zero income and no appropriate financial Government support, I have no choice but to make these decisions.”

    We are not asking the impossible of Government; we are saying, “Look at what other countries are doing”, whether that is Spain, Italy, New Zealand, France or Germany. They are taking a sectoral approach to the furlough. They are saying that specific sectors are more affected by the public health measures and that, therefore, the economic measures have to match that.

    Richard Fuller

    The shadow Secretary of State will be aware that the Government measures taken across the economy, which he has welcomed, already raise issues of fairness between those who fall one side of the line and those who fall on the other side. What is his proposal for those sectors? Some businesses will fall just to one side, but who will be the expert to understand who fits where? I am all up for it if he can reconcile that, but there are risks, are there not?

    Edward Miliband

    Of course there are, but just because we cannot do everything does not mean that we should not do anything. The grants programme that the Government introduced was done by sector—retail, hospitality and leisure. The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about boundaries, and some business organisations would raise that issue, but I worry that technical concerns about boundaries, which have been overcome for the grants scheme, stop us doing something that makes real sense.

    Kevin Hollinrake

    What the right hon. Gentleman says about the sector-based nature of the grants scheme highlights the problem in his argument. All MPs in this place, I am sure, have been contacted by people—in the hospitality supply chain, for example—who were not getting support. It is so difficult to take a sector-based approach. Will he concede that that is not as easy as he thinks?

    Edward Miliband

    Of course it is not easy, but the hon. Gentleman’s implication is that nothing can be done for those sectors that are obviously more affected by the public health measures.

    Kevin Hollinrake indicated dissent.

    Edward Miliband

    The hon. Gentleman is shaking his head. If things can be done, they should be done, but my point is that the strength of the Government response is that it has been comprehensive. It has used the power of Government and it has not necessarily taken a one-size-fits-all approach. I am worried—we see this in the evidence that has been brought forward—about the one-size-fits-all approach.

    Kevin Hollinrake

    I speak as a business person as well as a Member of Parliament. In my view, the Chancellor made the job retention scheme very generous, continuing it a lot longer than many thought it would; and rather than have a sector-based scheme to help some people and not others, he has tried to help all employers and make it flexible for all the different categories of employer.

    Edward Miliband

    I do not disagree with the hon. Gentleman that it is important that we have had the furlough, but I disagree that it should be cut off at the end of October, because I really worry about the economic impact. We have 2.8 million people already claiming unemployment-related benefits, and I worry about the implications for these other industries.

    The tragedy is that the Government have spent £22 billion on the furlough, but I fear that we will throw away some of that investment by not recognising that specific sectors face specific challenges. I urge the Business Secretary—he knows this, as he talks to the same people that I do—to use all the powers of his office to make representations to the Chancellor to find a way of fixing that, so that we have a sector-specific approach to the furlough, including an extension beyond October.

    Just as I do not believe that the furlough should be abruptly ended, I believe that there are issues of access to loan finance. As I have said, the bounce back loans scheme has been successful at getting money out of the door, but the same cannot be said of the other small business loan scheme, the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme. In the case of CBILS, only half of all applications have been approved, and the supposed freeing up of the scheme as a result of bounce back loans being made available is yet to materialise. We still do not know why 48,000 out of 98,000 CBILS loans are stuck in a holding pattern, and we do not know how many have been rejected and how many are still in the queue. One of the things we are asking for in the Bill is for the Government to publish data on the true number of rejections and the total number of inquiries.

    The problem is not just with the small loan scheme. We have seen a wave of job losses in manufacturing, from Rolls-Royce to McLaren to Jaguar Land Rover. Make UK is predicting that as many as 170,000 jobs could be lost this year in the manufacturing sector alone. Any talk of levelling up will come to nought if we lose those jobs—I am sure that sentiment is shared across the House—and I urge the Secretary of State to look at the international comparisons of France and Germany, which have protected and supported strategic sectors of the economy, such as steel, aerospace and automotive, in a number of different ways. That is why our amendment to the Bill calls on the Government also to publish the true number of rejections in respect of the larger loan scheme, the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme, and explain why 400 larger businesses have not been able to access support through the scheme. Again, we do not know whether they are stuck in a holding pattern and still waiting in the queue or have just been rejected. These sectors are calling for tailored Government support to help them through the crisis, but it has not been forthcoming. The big point is that, from hospitality to leisure to manufacturing, this is a general recession, but it was also much more acute in specific sectors, and the Government need to recognise this far more in their response.

    If one part of the Government’s strategy is about shielding sectors of our economy from the sectoral recession, the other part must be about job creation and employment. We are to have a speech tomorrow from the Prime Minister. It is a shame that we do not have a Budget; I do not really understand why we do not have a Budget in what is potentially the worst recession in 300 years. If now is not the time for a Budget, I do not know when is the time for a Budget, but there is a speech tomorrow and big promises are being made about it.

    The Bill rightly talks about what can be done in the construction sector. The way to help the construction sector is not just to tweak the operational hours, although that is important, but also to deliver on some of the promises the Government have made. Again, I think this view can be shared across the House; I do not often quote the Conservative manifesto approvingly—[Interruption.]—or at least not enough, but it promised £9.2 billion for energy efficiency in public and private buildings. Conservative Members all stood on that manifesto and I am sure that they support it.

    We know how behind the Government are on building retrofits. The Committee on Climate Change recently said that there has been “negligible progress since 2015” and that the challenge of retrofit and renovation has gone “largely unaddressed.” We know that investing in retrofit is the ultimate win-win. This is the ideal opportunity—it would help the construction sector, not just in relation to operational hours, and could create tens of thousands of jobs—but today there are reports that it is being blocked by none other than Dominic Cummings. Apparently, he is uninterested and thinks it is “boring old housing insulation”. The Secretary of State and I have a good relationship, and I am happy to give way to him so that he can say that the £9 billion is going to happen. We need the £9 billion, so I am happy to give way. He has overruled Dominic Cummings on Sunday trading; now is the time to overrule him on this.

    Let us also bring forward the £12 billion of social housing spending that has been promised. All these things are important, and they are also part of job creation. I think the idea that we need a green recovery is shared throughout the House, as least at the level of principle. Some people—assiduous readers—will have read over the weekend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster’s rather long speech, which mentioned Franklin Roosevelt 17 times. [Interruption.] I see Members nodding. Let me tell the House about Roosevelt: he put 3 million people back to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps. We need that kind of ambition on retrofit; on manufacturing low-carbon engines; on adapting our towns and cities to walking and cycling; on creating green spaces; and on reforesting and rewilding. We need what I call a zero-carbon army as part of a youth jobs fund.

    We should see all these things as part of the green new deal because—this is the point—we face an unemployment emergency in this country. We should be under no illusions: a million young people are forecast to be out of work this year. We need a scale of action that matches that. That is my point. The Government measures we have supported over the past few months have recognised the power of active government in a crisis like this. My appeal to the Government is not to shrink from that now, because we are just at the beginning.

    To conclude, we welcome the Bill as a step to help the hospitality and construction industry to reopen, but it is not nearly enough. The Government have shown that they are willing to take action, but we face the deepest and sharpest recession, possibly for hundreds of years, and Government power has to be continued to be used. The decisions taken by the Government in the coming weeks will determine how many jobs are lost and how many businesses survive. The commitment to do whatever it takes cannot be a hollow promise. We are calling for an extension to the furlough for specific sectors; an urgent job-creation programme with a green recovery at its heart; and real action on infrastructure, not just words. I urge the Government not to step back when our economy, our businesses and our workers desperately need support.