Labour Party

Labour has ‘historic opportunity’ to reverse NHS privatisation, says campaigners

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/06/labour-has-historic-opportunity-to-reverse-nhs-privatisation-research-finds/

Labour called on to pledge to take outsourced NHS services in-house during first term

Labour has been told it will have a ‘historic opportunity’ to reverse NHS outsourcing in its first term, if the party wins the general election. 

Assuming Labour takes office on July 5, campaign group We Own It has laid out a plan for Labour not to renew private NHS contracts which are set to expire in the first term of the next government, as analysis has found a huge majority of contracts will need renewing over the next four years.  

Based on an analysis of NHS contracts, data has shown that the next government will inherit 7,452 contracts, worth a total of £29.1bn, between for-profit private companies and local, regional and national NHS entities in England. 

The public ownership campaign group found that 93.7% of these contracts are scheduled to expire before July 2029, worth £19.7bn, leaving the next government with the choice of whether to bring these services back into the NHS.  

Over £1bn is the estimated profits private companies stand to make from all NHS outsourcing contracts the next government will inherit, according to public sector procurement specialists Tussell. This money could help hire over 27,000 NHS nurses, or cover the cost of knee replacement surgeries for over 71,000 NHS patients, We Own It argued.

Professor of Accounting at the University of Edinburgh, Christine Cooper, said: “The evidence suggests that measures to bring back outsourced contracts would enable better public services at lower cost. 

“Whether to outsource to the private sector is no longer a question of ideology, it is a question of economic interest and empirical evidence.”

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/06/labour-has-historic-opportunity-to-reverse-nhs-privatisation-research-finds/

Continue ReadingLabour has ‘historic opportunity’ to reverse NHS privatisation, says campaigners

Green Party condemns ‘tough on immigration’ rhetoric

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Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsey

Responding to Sir Keir Starmer’s comment “Read my lips – I will bring immigration numbers down” to the Sun on Sunday, Green Party Co-Leader, Adrian Ramsay, said: 

“Keir Starmer is falling into the same trap that the Conservatives have.

“Stoking division and adopting the anti-migrant rhetoric of Nigel Farage and Natalie Elphicke instead of welcoming the important role people choosing to work in the UK play.   

“People coming to live and work in the UK play an invaluable role in our health and care sectors. 

“Those who peddle this divisive rhetoric ignore this and instead feed a false narrative that it’s migration, not a chronic underinvestment in public services, that are stopping you from getting a GP appointment, a hospital bed, or the surgery you need.   

“This is just not true”.    

He continued,    

“Greens in contrast reject this false divisive rhetoric.    

“We are offering real hope and real change at this election.    

“Only the Greens offer the investment in jobs, infrastructure and public services fit for the future to fix our broken frontline services.  

“Voters know that the Greens will never blame people from other countries for the years of underinvestment and economic mismanagement by the Conservative Government.” 

Continue ReadingGreen Party condemns ‘tough on immigration’ rhetoric

UK care agencies accused of exploiting foreign workers caught in debt traps

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/02/uk-care-agencies-accused-of-exploiting-foreign-workers-caught-in-debt-traps

Many foreign care workers in the UK say they are lured over on false promises that cause them to amass serious debts. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images/Alamy/PA/Reuters.

Guardian Exclusive: Experts raise alarm over ‘national scandal’ that has hallmarks of trafficking and modern slavery

British social care agencies have been accused of exploiting foreign workers, leaving people living on the breadline as they struggle to pay off debts run up while trying to secure jobs that fail to materialise.

Dozens of people working for 11 different care providers have told the Guardian they paid thousands of pounds to agents to secure jobs working in UK care homes or residential care, with most finding limited or no employment when they arrived.

Many are now struggling to pay off huge debts in their home countries and having to work in irregular jobs for below the minimum wage.

Labour and the Conservatives are now under pressure to tackle the issue if they win next month’s election. The Tories recently banned foreign care workers bringing their dependents to the UK with them, a ban Labour said last week it would keep in place in an effort to bring net immigration down.

But experts say the ban has failed to tackle the deeper issue of exploitation of the workers themselves, many of whom are still in the UK and living in poverty, afraid to leave their employers for fear of losing their visa status.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has now written to the leaders of all three major national parties to demand a full government inquiry into treatment of migrant care workers when parliament returns.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the acting general secretary of the RCN, said: “The exploitation of migrant care workers is a national scandal but little has been done to tackle it.

“A chronically understaffed social care sector has supercharged its recruitment of staff from overseas and a lack of regulation and enforcement has allowed some employers to profit from the mistreatment of migrants.”

She added: “An urgent government investigation into exploitation across the social care sector must be a priority for whoever wins the general election. Lives are being ruined daily and this work has to start as soon as possible.”

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/02/uk-care-agencies-accused-of-exploiting-foreign-workers-caught-in-debt-traps

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Anti-poverty charity urges politicians to set out plan to tackle ongoing hardship for low-income households

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/06/anti-poverty-charity-urges-politicians-to-set-out-plan-to-tackle-ongoing-hardship-for-low-income-households/

‘We need our politicians to set out how they will bring an end to this relentless reality of hardship in the general election campaign.’

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has called on all politicians to urgently address the reality of years-long hardship for families on low incomes.

The call was made following research conducted by the anti-poverty charity which found that the bottom 20 percent of low-income households are facing the same levels of hardship as they were last year, despite inflation falling.

The findings of the Savanta survey of 4,092 adults in the UK in low-income households were scaled by the JRF to population level.

From May 2022 to May 2024, the number of households going without essentials, such as showers, heating, and adequate clothing, ranged from 6.9 million to 7.3 million. Around 5 million households continue to go hungry, skip meals and cut back on food.

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On May 24, during his general election campaign launch in Scotland, Keir Starmer said the party will not be able to afford to scrap the two-child benefit cap if Labour wins the next general election.

The policy was introduced by the Tories in 2017, and prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for third or subsequent children. It is said to be one of the biggest drivers of rising child poverty – up from 3.6 million children below the poverty line in 2010/11 to 4.2 million in 2021/22.

Starmer said that while he was committed to ending child poverty he would not make promises he couldn’t afford. The announcement caused disquiet among senior Labour politicians. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, said he should promise that “when there is the headroom to do something, this clearly should be at the front of the queue.”

https://leftfootforward.org/2024/06/anti-poverty-charity-urges-politicians-to-set-out-plan-to-tackle-ongoing-hardship-for-low-income-households/

Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.
Continue ReadingAnti-poverty charity urges politicians to set out plan to tackle ongoing hardship for low-income households