Party Lines: November 17th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Douglas Alexander argued that while a fall in unemployment was welcome “we are not out of the woods yet”, and that the government is not doing enough to stimulate economic growth:

“Given the expectation of very significant job losses in the public sector coming up my sense is we are not out of the woods yet.”

“What we haven’t had from the government is a plan to stimulate jobs and growth. I welcome any fall in unemployment and congratulate those individuals who have managed to get themselves into work, we are still looking at an economy that has unemployed people chasing every single vacancy.”

John Healey highlighted how the government is breaking its promises on NHS funding and reorganisation, at a time when the service is showing signs of strain:

“David Cameron said before the election that he would protect NHS spending and in the Coalition Agreement went further by promising to guarantee health spending increases in real terms in every year of the Parliament. But his government is now breaking its promises, double-counting £1billion a year in the Spending Review as both money for the NHS and money to paper over the cracks in social care.”

“And this time of all times, the last thing the NHS needs is a big internal, high-cost and high-risk reorganisation. David Cameron ruled out reorganisation before the Election; as did the Coalition Agreement. But that was before the Health White Paper plans. Promise made in May, broken in July; promise made by David Cameron, broken by the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.”

Ed Balls warned that over 3,000 police officers with more than thirty years experience could be affected by a legal loophole that allows officers to be made forcibly redundant for reasons of ‘efficiency’:

“People are rightly concerned that twenty per cent funding cuts being demanded by the government will see fewer police officers and undermine the fight against crime.