Tag Archives: sanctions

10 June 2025 – today’s Federal press releases

  • Workforce figures: clear the Government must change course
  • Spending Review must deliver progress on social care
  • “Conveyor belt of Trump sycophants” rolls on as David Bull appointed Reform Chairman
  • Spending review: Home Office at risk of £500 million shortfall as Home Secretary on ‘resignation watch’
  • Ben-Gvir and Smotrich: Davey welcomes sanctions and calls for recognition of Palestine
  • £3 Bus cap extension: Labour clearly isn’t listening

Workforce figures: clear the Government must change course

Responding to the latest workforce figures which show unemployment and the number on jobless benefits rising, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

These figures could not be a clearer signal to the Chancellor, ahead of the spending review, that the Government must change course.

The Chancellor’s pig’s ear of a jobs tax is crushing the growth potential of our high-streets and small businesses, pushing people out of work, and ramping up the benefits bill.

This week, instead of pursuing another round of devastating departmental cuts, the Government needs to take the handbrake off our economy and go for growth. That means negotiating a bespoke UK-EU Customs Union to turbocharge our economy and raise billions of pounds to protect public services and struggling families.

Spending Review must deliver progress on social care

Ahead of the spending review today (11th June) Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

People have been left desperately disappointed in the Government’s failure to break clean from years of Conservative neglect and finally start delivering the change that people were promised.

Today’s spending review must deliver progress on social care. The Government’s bid to start reforms has barely progressed since it was announced six-months ago. Yet we all know the simple truth: without solving the social care challenge, putting money into the NHS today will be like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

Ministers should also be slashing the reams of red tape that are holding local businesses back and negotiate a bespoke UK-EU customs union, rather than pursuing painful cuts to already stretched budgets. Until they do, the Chancellor will still be trying to drive the economy forward with the handbrake on.

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15 October 2024 – yesterday’s press releases

  • Wage Growth falls: Govt must back small businesses as the backbone of our economy
  • NI Rise: Chancellor needs to think again
  • Poll: 1 in 4 reveal they are unable to work because they can’t get a NHS appointment
  • Lib Dems urge further UK government sanctions to proscribe far-right Israeli ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich
  • Highland MP to lead debate on Community Benefits from Renewables
  • Cole-Hamilton: A&E waits once again worse than last year

Wage Growth falls: Govt must back small businesses as the backbone of our economy

Responding to the latest wage growth figures falling by 4.9%, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

The cost of living crisis is still affecting many people across the country.

The cost of the weekly shop remains sky high compared to a few years ago, and years of mismanagement under the Conservative Government had squeezed people’s pay.

The Government must use the Autumn Budget to tackle the cost-of-living crisis facing pensioners and families, and also back small businesses as the backbone of our economy.

NI Rise: Chancellor needs to think again

Responding to Keir Starmer refusing to rule out a National Insurance increase for employers in the Budget on BBC Breakfast, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

The Chancellor needs to think again if the government is considering hiking taxes on small businesses, who have already suffered from eye-watering tax rises under the last Conservative government.

The burden of this budget should fall on the likes of big banks, social media giants and oil and gas firms, instead of our local community businesses. The Chancellor should be protecting these smaller businesses, who are the backbone of our economy and the heartbeat of our communities.

Now is not the time to raise national insurance rates on our high streets, local businesses and dynamic entrepreneurs.

The Conservative government has left our economy on life support. Now is the time to boost growth by backing small businesses and repairing our crumbling public services.

Poll: 1 in 4 reveal they are unable to work because they can’t get a NHS appointment

  • The Liberal Democrats will be using their first full opposition day in 15 years to focus on the NHS and care crisis.
  • Almost half (45%) of Brits have tried to get a NHS appointment in the last year and have been unable to.
  • 1 in 4 (27%) reveal they are unable to work because they can’t get a NHS appointment
  • Almost three in five (58%) adults who were unable to get a NHS appointment have self-diagnosed from searching their symptoms online.

The Liberal Democrats will use their opposition day in Parliament tomorrow to raise the NHS crisis, as a shocking new poll commissioned by the party reveals reveals a quarter (27%) of working adults in the UK say they have been unable to work in the last 12 months because they were waiting for a GP (19%) or NHS dentist appointment (12%).

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22 March 2022 – today’s press releases

  • HMICFRS report: Met police needs new leadership not stitch up by Johnson and Patel
  • Oligarch ditches UK mansions after government sanctions delay
  • Nationality and Borders Bill: A traffickers’ charter that will cause deaths in the Channel
  • Patel must stop her assault on British rights and freedoms

HMICFRS report: Met police needs new leadership not stitch up by Johnson and Patel

Responding to the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) into corruption in the Met Police and the case of Daniel Morgan, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

This shocking report lays bare the ingrained culture of corruption and cover-up at the top of the Met. Police officers put themselves at risk every day to keep us safe, but they are being let down by poor leadership.

The Met urgently needs strong new leadership. Choosing the new Commissioner is too important to be a stitch up between Priti Patel and Boris Johnson – especially when Johnson is under criminal investigation by the Met himself.

The next Commissioner must be someone who will shake things up and stand up to government ministers – and that’s someone Johnson and Patel will never choose.

That’s why Liberal Democrats are calling for a cross-party confirmation vote by both Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee and London’s Police and Crime Committee, to stop the Government stitching up this crucial appointment.

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15 March 2022 – today’s press release

New sanctions list: Shutting the door after the private jet has bolted

Responding to the government’s new expanded sanctions list of Russian individuals, coming almost three weeks since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Layla Moran MP said:

This is shutting the door after the private jet has bolted. The Government has finally got their act together – but we should have been in this position weeks ago. This delay has given Putin’s cronies a priceless window to firesale their assets.

Now we need to go further. There are still too many associates of Putin getting away with it

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14 March 2022 – today’s press releases

  • Ministers losing track on Ukrainian refugee visa u-turns
  • Homes for Ukraine: Refugees still trapped in bureaucratic limbo
  • Economic Crime Bill: Lib Dems close ‘Oligarch Loophole’

Ministers losing track on Ukrainian refugee visa u-turns

Responding to Sajid Javid’s confusion this morning over a family reunion route for Ukrainian refugees, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:

The Government has u-turned so many times over visas for Ukrainian refugees, it seems even its own Cabinet Ministers have lost track.

Three weeks on, it is unacceptable that the Home Office is still turning away desperate families fleeing Putin’s war, and snaring them in red tape at the border. It is shameful that even Ukrainians working in our NHS cannot bring family members to join them.

The Government must make one more u-turn, and allow any Ukrainian refugee to come to the UK without having to apply for a visa first.

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Absence of Gazprom and Rosneft from sanctions list is “elephant in the room”

Responding to the additional sanctions on Russian companies and individuals announced today by Boris Johnson, Liberal Democrat Leader and former Energy Secretary Ed Davey said:

The absence of Gazprom and Rosneft, part-owned by BP, in today’s sanctions list is the elephant in the room. The UK must do everything we can to stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

Russia’s state-owned oil and gas giants stand to profit from this war and soaring prices. We must start treating Putin’s Russia like the rogue state it is and immediately cut off UK investment in these firms.

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Roman Protasevich abduction – time for Britain to act?

The criminal hijacking of a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, with a Belarussian anti-government activist on board has led to calls from across Europe and beyond for firm action to be taken against the Belarus Government led by Alexander Lukashenko, whose agents advised the flight crew that there was a bomb onboard, and then seized Protasevich and his partner, Sofia Sapega, whilst the plane was on the ground in Minsk.

Layla Moran was quick to call upon Dominic Raab to respond;

https://twitter.com/LaylaMoran/status/1396532079995797510?s=20

Meanwhile, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, in advance of today’s European Council meeting, demanded;

  • The immediate release

Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged , and | 9 Comments

How do benefit sanctions affect mental health?

There are few things more obvious than if you are deprived of the means to feed yourself, it’s going to be stressful and more than likely affect your mental health and not in a good way. This Mental Health Awareness Week, the excellent Scottish Association for Mental Health is collecting evidence to present to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into benefit sanctions. 

People on benefits can lose up to all of their personal allowances if they are deemed to have not done enough to find work or have missed an appointment or have been sacked for …

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  • Simon McGrath
    I am afraid this article is an example of someone applying simplistic solutions in an area of which they are wholly ignorant. Even a cursory study of the vario...
  • Lin Macmillan
    I am very supportive of Christine and her decision. I am very unhappy that our MPs were not whipped to vote against the dreadful Tory amendment. I am also ver...
  • Richard Dickson
    Thank you Christine for all you've done, and doubtless will continue to do with great style, with and for people in our communities whose voice is often not lis...
  • Nigel Quinton
    “Whipped to abstain” - isn’t that the very definition of virtue signalling irrelevance? What an utter Westminster bubble farce....
  • Chris Lewcock
    Very poor group management. Christine should never have been pushed into this position....