• NICs: Prime Minister is still peddling this deception
• Chamberlains’s Carer’s Leave Bill to come into force
• 91,000 people call 999 or turn to A&E after struggling to get GP appointment
• Rennie: Fall in modern languages teachers jeopardises vision for Scotland
• Blackie: ‘My top priority: fix the Met’

NICs: Prime Minister is still peddling this deception

Responding to the changes to National Insurance (NI) and freezing of income tax thresholds coming into force tomorrow, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Sarah Olney MP said:

The Prime Minister is still peddling this deception and voters will see straight through it.

Hammering the public with unfair stealth taxes and then claiming people will be taking home more in their pay packets is frankly offensive.

This is an out of touch Prime Minister leading a directionless Conservative government with his party more interested in clinging on to power than ensuring people are better off. They do not deserve to be in power for a moment longer.

Chamberlains’s Carer’s Leave Bill to come into force

The “landmark” Carer’s Leave Bill introduced by North East Fife MP and Scottish Liberal Democrat deputy leader Wendy Chamberlain will come into force on Saturday 6th April.

The Bill will give an estimated 2.4 million carers across the UK a statutory right to take five days of unpaid leave per year. Carer’s UK have described this as a ‘landmark’ piece of legislation which would help carers to better balance work and care.

Wendy Chamberlain introduced the Carer’s Leave Bill in June 2022 after winning a place in the Private Member’s Bill lottery. The Bill enjoyed cross-party support and was passed on 19 May 2023. The legislation comes into effect on 6th April 2024

Speaking ahead of the bill coming into force, Wendy Chamberlain MP said:

When I had the chance to present a Private Member’s Bill as a backbencher, I knew I wanted to present something that would help improve people’s lives. That’s why I decided to present the Carer’s Leave Bill.

It has been a long process since I first presented my Private Member’s Bill in 2022 but I am so excited that April 6th has finally arrived which means that the Carer’s Act will come into force today.

This is vital progress in improving carers’ employment rights and will help to offer some more flexibility to balance work and caring.

Becoming a carer is something that can happen to any one of us. It can take many forms: from day-to-day physical caring, making medical appointments or doing the shopping for a housebound elderly neighbour. Caring or being cared for is something that almost everyone will experience at some point in their life.

The work unpaid carers do is so vital yet is it extremely underappreciated. This hard work should be better recognised which is a key reason why I led the Carer’s Leave Act through Parliament. The Act gives carers up to 5 days of unpaid leave a year.

I’ve met with some incredible organisations over the last two years and I would like to deeply thank Carers UK with whom I worked closely with throughout the process of getting this bill passed. It would not have been possible without their support.

Sandra Morris, centre manager at Fife Carers Centre said:

Fife Carers Centre are pleased to see the introduction of Unpaid Carers Leave form 6th April, 2024.

We know that many of the Carers we support throughout Fife will benefit from this leave to assist with their unpaid caring role.

91,000 people call 999 or turn to A&E after struggling to get GP appointment

An estimated 91,000 people called 999 or turned up to A&E after struggling to get a GP appointment, analysis of ONS figures from the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The Office of National Statistics survey found that 0.6% of people said that the last time they contacted a GP practice, they ended up seeking urgent treatment including Accident and Emergency and 999 services. This is equivalent to around 91,500 people across the country.

A further 180,000 had called 111 as ‘the GP practice could not help that day’. 1.3% of respondents said they ended up managing the issue themselves, equivalent to 204,500 people.

Overall, one in twelve people (8.5%) said they didn’t manage to make contact with a GP practice the last time they tried to, while another 11.5% said they only managed to make contact two or more days later. Almost one in three (31%) described contacting their GP practice as either difficult or very difficult.

It comes after recent research by the King’s Fund only a third of people said they were satisfied with GP services, the lowest level of satisfaction recorded since the survey began in 1983.

The Liberal Democrats said the figures showed that ‘the GP crisis is piling pressure onto our hospitals and ambulance services ‘ and called for a legal right for people to see a GP within seven days, or 24-hours if in urgent need, with 8,000 more GPs to deliver on it.

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

These shocking figures show once again that the GP crisis is piling pressure onto our hospitals and ambulance services, as desperate patients resort to turning up at A&E or calling 999 instead.

GPs act as the front door to the NHS, but for far too many people that door has been slammed shut after years of Conservative neglect. It is a national scandal and the consequences are devastating.

Liberal Democrats will end this vicious cycle of decline, by getting 8,000 more GPs into the system to give people a legal right to see a GP within a week or 24 hours in urgent need.

Rennie: Fall in modern languages teachers jeopardises vision for Scotland

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today accused the SNP of presiding over a decline in modern languages, warning that this puts opportunities, the economy and a vision for an outward-looking Scotland “at risk like never before.”

Analysis by the party of the Supplementary School Statistics reveals that:

• There has been a 43% fall in the number of French teachers, decreasing from 1,070 in 2008 to 613 in 2023 – the worst on record.
• The number of German teachers has fallen by almost 60%, dropping from 180 in 2008 in 74 in 2023 – the worst on record.
• The number of Italian teachers has fallen from 12 in 2008 to 5 in 2023.

Mr Rennie said:

Learning languages broadens opportunities, enriches our economy and delivers a vision for an outward-looking Scotland, but the SNP are putting all of that at risk like never before.

These disturbingly low figures have big consequences. Lack of language teachers can lead to a drop in the number of pupils taking subjects like French, German and Italian, which in turn means universities deciding to scrap modern languages degrees altogether, as we saw Aberdeen attempting last year.

We need a plan to get Scottish education moving in the right direction. Scottish Liberal Democrats would make teaching a more attractive career path by bringing back principal teachers for key subjects, halting teacher cuts, funding stable contracts and boosting in-class support.

Blackie: ‘My top priority: fix the Met’

Speaking on a visit with frontline officers in Wimbledon today (Friday), Liberal Democrat London Mayoral candidate Rob Blackie spoke passionately about making the capital’s streets safer.

Sadiq Khan’s failure on crime and policing was the “number one reason” why he was standing for mayor, Blackie said.

He pledged that, if elected, his top priority will be to Fix The Met. His plan includes:

• Make the Met Police the number one budgeting priority and divert the majority of any surplus funds to the force. Fund this by ditching election gimmicks like Khan’s fare freeze
• Bring an end to Khan’s cronyism and appoint a real expert to the role of Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime
• Strengthen local policing teams and get hundreds more officers back on frontline duty by tackling the huge numbers stuck in back-office roles
• Accelerate the adoption of new technologies to improve police efficiency – e.g.: better remote access to digital forensics
• Recruit 500 additional Special Constables through the Employer Supported Policing Programme
• Ensure police focus on serious crime instead of spending a disproportionate amount of time on low-level drug offences

Rob Blackie said:

It’s the first responsibility of the Mayor to protect Londoners. Under Sadiq Khan the Metropolitan Police Service has deteriorated into an unacceptable state.

After eight years with Sadiq Khan in charge, the police are catching rapists half as often as they did and trust in the Met is at an all-time low. ​​I want Londoners to be safe walking on our streets.

As Liberal Democrat Mayor my top priority will be to fix the Met.

I will focus the police on clearing up the crimes that matter most. I will do this by getting hundreds more officers back on frontline duty and ensuring the police focus on tackling serious crime – rather than wasting their time carrying out stop and searches on young people for cannabis and laughing gas.

The Met Police will continue to be my number one budget priority with the majority of any surplus funds in any financial year being redirected to the force. No more election gimmicks.

We will also bring an end to Khan’s cronyism and appoint an expert to the role of Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime. These vital roles can’t keep being dished out to party loyalists.

The money and capability is there to fix the Met. All that is needed is the political will to drive through the changes that Londoners are desperately calling for.