We’ve now managed to gain access to press releases from our Scottish colleagues, and so, welcome to our newly enhanced press release coverage…

• Lords Rwanda Bill votes: “Morally bankrupt government” defeated five times
• Ed Davey visits Chancellor’s seat ahead of Budget as GP funding in Surrey slashed by £10 million
• January the worst month on record for waits over 12 hours at A&E
• Scot Lib Dems respond as council debt at record levels

Lords Rwanda Bill votes: “Morally bankrupt government” defeated five times

Responding to the series of five heavy defeats for the government on their Rwanda Bill in the House of Lords this evening, which saw several Conservative peers voting against the government’s position, Liberal Democrat Leader in the Lords Dick Newby said:

For months this Conservative government has been pushing this policy that does nothing to solve the asylum backlog. This Bill has cost hundreds of millions of pounds, and doesn’t combat dangerous Channel crossings or create safe, legal routes.

By declaring Rwanda safe when it is clearly anything but, and excluding the courts, the Bill also undermines the rule of law. It is the product of a morally and politically bankrupt Government.

Ed Davey visits Chancellor’s seat ahead of Budget as GP funding in Surrey slashed by £10 million

• GP funding in Surrey fell by 5.3% in real terms between 2018/19 and 2022/23, equivalent to a £9.2 million cut when accounting for inflation

• Funding per patient took an even starker hit, falling by 8.6% in real terms resulting in a £14 per patient shortfall

• Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey will visit a GP surgery in Jeremy Hunt’s seat ahead of the Budget to call on the Chancellor to cancel his planned £1.3 billion real terms cut to NHS spending

• A recent poll of the Chancellor’s seat showed it was at risk of falling to the Lib Dems with voters in the seat naming the NHS as their top priority as 59% of them had close friends and family who had struggled to get a GP appointment

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey will today (Tuesday 5th March) visit a GP surgery in the Chancellor’s Godalming and Ash constituency ahead of the Budget to demand that Hunt cancel his planned real terms NHS spending cuts.

It comes as figures show Surrey has seen GP funding slashed by 5.3% in real terms since 2019, above the national average of 3.3%. It means that patients in Surrey are experiencing a £9.2 million real-terms GP funding shortfall since 2019.

GP funding in Surrey amounts to just £151 per patient, one of the lowest in the country and down on £165 in real terms if funding had been uprated with inflation since 2019.

A recent poll by Savanta which showed Jeremy Hunt’s seat could fall to the Lib Dems at the next election. It also showed that voters in Godalming and Ash put the NHS as their number one issue that would define how they vote. The poll also found that 59% of people in the seat had close friends or family that had struggled with booking a GP appointment.

Ed Davey will use his visit to Jeremy Hunt’s seat to call on the Chancellor to cancel his planned £1.3 billion in real terms cuts to NHS spending ahead of the Budget, and use some of the money to increase investment in local GP services.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Jeremy Hunt is totally out of touch with patients across the country, including those in his own seat who are struggling to see a GP when they need to.

The Chancellor must urgently change course and reverse his planned health service spending cuts at the Budget.

It is no wonder lifelong Conservative voters across Surrey are rejecting Rishi Sunak’s Government and switching to the Liberal Democrats in their droves, with even the Chancellor’s own seat now under threat.

People know at the next election it is a clear choice between an out-of-touch Conservative or a hard-working local Liberal Democrat MP who will stand up for local health services.

January the worst month on record for waits over 12 hours at A&E

Responding to new figures showing only 65.5% of people attending A&E were seen within the 4 hour target in January, the worst since December 2022, while 8,857 people waited over 12 hours, the worst on record, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

Not only has Humza Yousaf’s NHS recovery plan failed to help the NHS move out of this state of constant crisis, it seems that we are still going backward and breaking all the wrong records.

Thousands of people waiting over 12 hours at A&E month after month should be something staff and patients never have to suffer through, but under this SNP government it’s practically the norm.

The new Health Secretary needs to act now to pull our NHS out of crisis. Staff and patients cannot afford yet another year of stagnation and no recovery.

Scottish Liberal Democrats would overhaul the NHS Recovery Plan, bring forward an urgent inquiry into the hundreds of avoidable deaths linked to the emergency care crisis and implement measures which will meaningfully tackle burnout among staff.

Scot Lib Dems respond as council debt at record levels

Responding to the publication of the Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics showing total council debt rising to a record £21.8 billion, an increase of £1.25bn in just a year, Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie commented:

We are rapidly heading down a path that will see Scottish councils declaring bankruptcy.

They have been put on a starvation diet for a decade. There needs to be some honesty from the SNP and the Scottish Greens.

Key services will vanish entirely and jobs will be lost unless they end their blockade of fresh funds for local communities.