• Davey on UK-EU Summit: PM must be ambitious and not “dragged back” by Badenoch and Farage
• £5bn from Youth Mobility Scheme would give Government “nowhere to hide” on winter fuel payment, say Lib Dems
• Davey on care visas: ‘Don’t leave our loved ones in the lurch’
• 2024 worst on record for ambulance equipment faults

Davey on UK-EU Summit: PM must be ambitious and not “dragged back” by Badenoch and Farage

Ahead of the UK-EU Summit, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has urged the Prime Minister to be “bold and ambitious for our country” and ignore “dinosaurs fighting old battles” in Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage.

The Lib Dems wrote to Labour MPs over the weekend, urging them to back closer trade ties with the EU to boost the public finances and avoid cuts to support for vulnerable families and pensioners.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said:

Keir Starmer must be bold and ambitious for our country in today’s summit. Voters were promised change by this government, and they have to deliver.

Being truly ambitious, including a new UK-EU customs union, would be the single biggest thing ministers could do to boost growth and fix the public finances.

Anything less would be a choice to limit growth, harming living standards and hitting the NHS and other public services.

The Prime Minister must ignore the dinosaurs fighting old battles, who want to drag us back to the destructive Brexit wars of the past, and focus on getting the best deal possible for the UK.

£5bn from Youth Mobility Scheme would give Government “nowhere to hide” on winter fuel payment, say Lib Dems

The Centre for European Reform claims that a Youth Mobility Scheme could add 0.45% to GDP over the long-term. New House of Commons Library analysis commissioned by the Liberal Democrats suggests that such growth could add roughly £5 billion to exchequer revenues a year.

The House of Commons Library has estimated that if GDP was 0.45% higher this could mean an additional tax revenue of around £5 billion a year in the long-run. The 0.45% figure was arrived at by a Centre for European Reform study on the economic impact of a Youth Mobility Scheme between the UK and EU.

The party says this additional revenue could be used to reverse unfair political decisions made by Labour since they came into office, for example the changes to eligibility for winter fuel payments, saying “it would be a political choice” to do otherwise. The Treasury estimated that the cut to the payment would save around £1.5 billion a year.

The Liberal Democrats have been calling on the Government to introduce a capped youth mobility scheme with the European Union for months, saying that Labour “dragging its heels” on this essential scheme to extend the opportunity for young Brits to work abroad in Europe.

Talks have stalled multiple times, with reports now suggesting Starmer will aim to finally agree a scheme tomorrow. But Liberal Democrat Europe Spokesperson James MacCleary has labelled Starmer the “boy who cried wolf” when it comes to youth mobility.

The Liberal Democrats are pushing for youth mobility to top Starmer’s priority list in Monday’s talks, and argue that the revenue generated by such a scheme should be used to reverse fiscal decisions such as the winter fuel payment.

James MacCleary MP, Liberal Democrat Europe Spokesperson, said:

We’ve been hounding the Government for months to sort out a capped youth mobility scheme – but they’ve been dragging their heels when it comes to properly negotiating on the issue.

We’re once again hearing positive noises from Downing Street about youth mobility agreements tomorrow. However, the Prime Minister is beginning to look like the boy who cried wolf when it comes to this crucial scheme.

A capped youth mobility scheme would give the Government nowhere to hide when it comes to decisions like the winter fuel cuts. It would bring benefits to both younger and older generations – opening opportunities for young people to live and study abroad while using the revenue the scheme attracts to revert on unfair decisions like the winter fuel cut. To ignore it would be a political choice.

Davey on care visas: ‘Don’t leave our loved ones in the lurch’

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has urged the Government to allow social care providers to extend care workers’ visas without facing “crippling” Home Office fees, to avoid making the crisis in social care even worse.

It comes as new research by the House of Commons Library, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, has revealed that under the Conservative Government the number of care workers from overseas rose by two thirds – more than 150,000 – in just two years, from 233,700 in 2021/22 to 387,900 in 2023/24.

It now means more than one in four (27%) of all care workers are from overseas, up from 17% in 2021/22.

The party is also calling for a new, higher Carer’s Minimum Wage – set at £2 an hour above the national living wage – to boost recruitment and retention of care workers in the UK, as well as arguing for health and care providers to be exempt from the Government’s National Insurance hike.

Under the plans in the Government’s immigration white paper, care providers will be able to apply until 2028 to extend their workers’ visas, but will have to pay the Home Office’s Immigration Skills Charge, which the Government is raising to £1,320 for each worker per year of their visa. This means a five-year extension for just one care worker would cost their employer £6,600 upfront. The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to waive this fee for NHS and care staff.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said:

Social care is in crisis, with millions of people missing out on the care they need because there aren’t enough care workers. Liberal Democrats have been pushing for a higher Carer’s Minimum Wage to tackle this crisis, but the Conservative Government made a deliberate choice to bring in low-paid workers from overseas instead of paying carers properly.

Imposing crippling Home Office fees on top of the Government’s misguided jobs tax will just make the crisis even worse, pushing many care homes to the brink and leaving our loved ones in the lurch.

People who have moved to the UK to look after our elderly and disabled people are doing tough jobs and helping to keep our NHS on its feet. They should be thanked for their contribution, not demonised.

2024 worst on record for ambulance equipment faults

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today published new research by his party showing that faults with ambulance equipment reached a record high in 2024.

Scottish Liberal Democrats asked the Scottish Ambulance Service to provide the number of equipment faults by year since 2007, when the SNP first came to power.

The data shows that:

• In 2024, there were 1,907 faults recorded with ambulance equipment. This is the highest number of faults on record.
• NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde recorded nearly half of these faults with 934.
• In 2024, NHS Lanarkshire recorded 328 faults, while NHS Ayrshire and Arran recorded 149 and NHS Dumfries & Galloway recorded 116.
• Since the SNP came to power in 2007, there have been 13,568 recorded faults with ambulance equipment.
• Ambulance equipment faults increased from 111 in 2007 to 1907 in 2024- an increase of 1,618%
• In NHS Highland, ambulance equipment faults have increased by 2,966% since 2007.

Scottish Liberal Democrats recently uncovered that ambulances spent the equivalent of 41 years waiting to unload and depart from hospitals in 2024.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

Ambulances and their crews save lives, with vital medical kit like defibrillators, stretchers and oxygen cylinders all on board. That’s why it’s worrying to see so many problems being reported with equipment.

While it may be that increases in faults are partly due to staff being encouraged to report more, the bottom line is that paramedics must be able to rely on their equipment. For almost two decades, they have been let down by a slew of SNP ministers who have no idea how to help them.

My party wants to make sure that staff have the equipment that they need to put their lifesaving skills to use.

Scottish Liberal Democrats would also support our first responders by addressing underlying problems in the health service, from social care to local health care. That’s how we can bring down things like ambulance waits and put staff back on an even keel.