• Davey calls on Government to pull Welfare Bill before vote as “PM’s own backbenchers” can see the damage carers face
• “Bungling Badenoch” urgently needs to clarify Conservative position on PM attending major summits after Pritchard criticism
• Married couple Yi-pei Chou Turvey and Michael Turvey top North East list
• Wendy Chamberlain MP and People’s Postcode Lottery respond to Government not lifting Charity Lottery Cap
• Cole-Hamilton: Cancer patients deserve better than SNP failures

Davey calls on Government to pull Welfare Bill before vote as “PM’s own backbenchers” can see the damage carers face

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has called on the Government to pull their controversial welfare reforms before a vote next week saying that “even the Prime Minister’s own backbenchers” can see the damage these reforms could do to unpaid family carers and those they look after.

Davey made the call as the Liberal Democrats have tabled their own Reasoned Amendment aimed at killing the Bill. It highlights the plight of unpaid family carers as a result of these cuts and instead urges the Government to fix the crisis in the NHS and social care, to get people off waiting lists and back into work to get the welfare bill down.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The Government needs to pull this Bill and go back to the drawing board. Even the Prime Minister’s own backbenchers can see the damage these cuts will do by leaving some of the most vulnerable without support and putting thousands of unpaid carers in impossible situations.

The Conservatives made a complete mess of our welfare system, but the way to bring the benefits bill down is not through cutting support for disabled people and those who care for them. It is by tackling the crisis in our NHS and social care, to get millions of people off waiting lists and back to work.

Family carers do tremendous work in often the most challenging of circumstances, taking huge pressures off our health services and helping loved ones. Taking support away from our nation’s carers is the worst kind of false economy.

I hope the Prime Minister listens and pulls this Bill instead of cutting vital support from thousands of vulnerable people.

“Bungling Badenoch” urgently needs to clarify Conservative position on PM attending major summits after Pritchard criticism

Responding to Conservative MP Mark Pritchard’s criticism of Kemi Badenoch’s comments after the PM’s statement today, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

Bungling Badenoch strikes again. Her own MPs are now in open revolt over her deeply unserious leadership.

The Conservative party’s infighting seems terminal, more interested in cheap point scoring than focussing on the great challenges this country faces. Badenoch urgently needs to clarify if her party’s position is that the Prime Minister should not be attending major international summits.

The Conservatives have abdicated their responsibilities as an opposition that can effectively hold the Government to account. The Liberal Democrats will continue to step up where the Conservatives fail and be the constructive opposition the country needs.

Married couple Yi-pei Chou Turvey and Michael Turvey top North East list

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today announced that Aberdeenshire councillor Yi-pei Chou Turvey and her husband Michael Turvey will be the top two candidates on the party’s regional list for the North East of Scotland at the forthcoming Scottish election.

Yi-pei won her council seat with the highest vote the party has ever achieved in that ward. She has campaigned on education and early years childcare, safer roads, health and social care and tackling the cost of living.

Michael has 17 years of experience working in the oil and gas industry where he is currently the Supply Chain Lead for the newest offshore hub in the North Sea.

The pair live in the countryside near Banchory.

Councillor Yi-pei Chou Turvey said:

I live in Aberdeenshire and I am proud of the region’s culture, history and natural beauty.

My constituents know me as “the hands-on councillor”, just as ready to help unblock a drain as raise an issue with the council.

Working with communities has been at the heart of my decades of volunteering work and inspired me to get involved with politics.

Michael and I are ambitious for the region. We will work together to deliver swift local access to healthcare and a real commitment to a fair deal for households from Dundee to Fraserburgh.

Michael Turvey said:

The North East is my home and I care deeply about its future. I have worked for almost two decades in the oil and gas industry which is so vital in our region but we have been forgotten and let down by the SNP.

Far too many people are waiting on a GP or dentist. We have communities divided by broken bridges that the council cannot afford to fix, and people have died here due to insufficient flood defences and unsafe trunk roads.

I know that Yi-pei and I have a strong partnership. Now we want to put that bond to work delivering a fair deal for everyone across the North East.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

At the forthcoming election every single Scot will have a chance to elect local champions for their community.

Yi-pei and Michael both know how important the North East is to Scotland’s economy and are determined to see it flourish.

People in the North East should put their cross next to the Scottish Liberal Democrats on the peach regional list ballot to elect Yi-pei and Michael and end 18 years of SNP failure.

Wendy Chamberlain MP and People’s Postcode Lottery respond to Government not lifting Charity Lottery Cap

Wendy Chamberlain, MP for North East Fife, brought forward her Private Member’s Bill earlier this year calling for the cap on charity lottery sales to be lifted. She worked closely with the People’s Postcode Lottery on this Bill. At the time, the Government indicated that they would be publishing a report assessing the impact of potential changes to the cap. That report was released today, yet despite the evidence presented, the Government has confirmed it will not be making any changes to the current limits.

In response to the report, Wendy Chamberlain MP said:

I’m deeply disappointed by the Government’s decision not to lift the cap on society lotteries, despite the clear evidence in its own commissioned report showing that doing so would help charities and good causes across the UK.

The independent research makes it clear that raising the annual sales limit for these lotteries would provide a lifeline for countless community organisations, enabling them to plan better, fundraise more effectively, and deliver services that so many people rely on.

It also shows that moderate reforms, like increasing the cap on ticket sales to £100 million for society lotteries whilst keeping the cap on prizes, would have no direct impact on National Lottery sales, but would increase funds available for good causes.

This decision feels like a missed opportunity to back our vital charity sector at a time when demand for services is rising and fundraising is increasingly difficult.

The Government says it wants to empower communities and level up opportunity, but this inaction tells a different story. We will continue to press Ministers to reconsider and give charity lotteries the freedom they need to support people across the country.

Chamberlain worked closely with the People’s Postcode Lottery on the Private Member’s Bill.

People’s Postcode Lottery Managing Director, Clara Govier said:

It beggars belief. The Government’s refusal to act cuts off potential extra charitable funding of £175 million over the course of this parliament – all of which would have been raised at zero cost to the Treasury.

This is a hammer blow for thousands of charities across the UK, big and small, that deliver vital every-day services to those most in need.

Even more alarmingly, the government has chosen not to lift the needless limits on charity lotteries despite its own research showing the move would increase charity funding raised by the wider lottery sector.

This is a clear failure to put the needs of the most vulnerable first and actively blocking the wishes of many of Britain’s biggest charities.

People’s Postcode Lottery can, of course, still grow but the way in which funds are awarded is now being dictated by legislation and rules and not need.

We plan to meet with the Minister as a matter of urgency.

Cole-Hamilton: Cancer patients deserve better than SNP failures

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said that cancer patients “deserve better” than SNP failures, as he challenged the First Minister on cancer waiting times reaching their worst level on record and questioned why Scots are missing out on a recommended screening programme for lung cancer.

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

It comes down to this: if cancer comes for you, you deserve to know that you have the best possible chance of survival. But under this SNP government, that just isn’t happening.

Even if you haven’t had cancer, you will know somebody who has.

But now, for patients referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer, treatment times for them are worse than at any point on record.

When this potentially lethal disease turns your world upside down, the last thing you need is a long wait for life-saving care.

So can I ask the First Minister, don’t these people deserve better?

Replying to the First Minister, Mr Cole-Hamilton went on to say:

His regret won’t save lives.

In Scotland, more people die of lung cancer than any other form of the disease. It kills 4,000 Scots every year. If you come from a poorer background, your chances are far worse.

Three years ago, the UK National Screening Committee recommended the whole UK introduce lung cancer screening to help prevent it or to catch it early.

It would be targeted at those who are at the highest risk, people aged between 55 and 74, who smoke or who used to smoke.

And experts have called it a ‘game changer’.

Survival rates for lung cancer in Scotland aren’t much better than they were in the 1970s. This intervention could save hundreds of lives every year.

This cancer screening programme is being rolled out across the whole of England. But not here. Why not?

Why are we years behind? Why are we so slow? Why are Scots missing out on this life-saving detection service?