Moran demands transparency on Leave donations channelled through NI

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran used Northern Ireland Questions today to urge the Government to change the law to ensure full transparency and scrutiny of Leave campaign donations given to political parties in Northern Ireland.

Current laws only require donations from July 2017 to be published, meaning details of who donated £425,000 to the Democratic Unionist Party that was spent on pro-Brexit advertising in the Metro does not have to be disclosed.

Speaking in the chamber today, Ms Moran asked the Government why they were “ignoring the recommendations of the Electoral Commission” to backdate transparency of donations to 2014.

Following the exchanges, Layla Moran MP said:

It really beggars belief that the Government is allowing political parties in Northern Ireland to mark their own homework and decide whether or not details of their donations should be made public.

The law already allows for details of donations to be backdated to 2014 and the independent Electoral Commission has urged the Government to do just that. It makes you wonder if the Conservatives and their DUP partners have something to hide.

With the Leave campaign under investigation by the Metropolitan Police, people in all parts of the United Kingdom have a right to know who donated money to the Leave campaign.

Lib Dems fight expansion of Snoopers Charter

Liberal Democrat peer Brian Paddick will today lead the opposition to new government regulations that he describes as “yet another erosion of people’s civil liberties”.

Lord Paddick has tabled a motion to regret the Data Retention and Acquisition Regulations 2018 after Ministers failed to answer privacy concerns he raised in a Grand Committee debate last week.

The regulations would amend the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, also known as the “Snoopers’ Charter”, to give police the power to access communications data when investigating any crime “which involves, as an integral part of it, the sending of a communication or a breach of a person’s privacy”.

This follows a judgment from the Court of Justice of the European Union in December 2016, which ruled that that such data must only be used “for the purpose of fighting serious crime”.

Brian Paddick, Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson on Home Affairs, said:

The courts have ruled the police should only have your itemised phone bill, a record of where you’ve been with your mobile phone or which websites you’ve been looking at on the internet if they’re investigating serious crime. The Government are trying to get around the judgement by re-defining ‘serious crime’ as any offence involving communication, whether it’s serious or not.

This is yet another erosion of people’s civil liberties, giving the police draconian powers instead of the resources they desperately need to do their job properly and responsibly.

At the last election Liberal Democrats pledged more money for the police than any other political party. Only the Liberal Democrats are standing up to protect our freedoms and properly fund the police service.

Brexit risks a repeat of the Windrush scandal for EU citizens

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey has warned Brexit “risks a repeat of the Windrush scandal for EU citizens” following the appearance of Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes before the Home Affairs Select Committee this afternoon.

Under questioning, the Immigration Minister was unable to answer how employers would be able to tell the difference between EU citizens who have been living in the UK for five years or more – and are therefore entitled to settled status – and those who haven’t, and would therefore be subject to new controls.

The Home Office is currently trialling the scheme for applying for settled status, but it isn’t due to be fully open until March 2019. The Government has said that EU citizens have until 30th June 2021 to apply. However, the Minister said today that, in the event of ‘no deal’, new immigration controls – including employer checks of immigration status – will apply to EU citizens as of next year.

Following the exchanges, Ed Davey said:

Millions of EU citizens in the UK have been living under a cloud of uncertainty for more than two years. Far from clearing up that uncertainty today, the Immigration Minister made it worse.

We’ve already seen in the Windrush scandal how the Conservatives’ hostile environment checks can destroy the lives of people who have every right to be in the UK. The Government’s chaotic approach to Brexit risks a repeat of that scandal for EU citizens.

Liberal Democrats demand better. Conservative Ministers must end this uncertainty and offer a way out of this mess entirely by giving the people a final say on the Brexit deal, with the option to remain in the EU.

CPS guidelines must be reformed to tackle ‘sex for rent’

Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Housing, today met the Ministry of Justice to call for the guidelines on prostitution to be updated to include digital platforms to help tackle ‘sex for rent’ crimes.

Following the meeting, Wera Hobhouse said:

The housing crisis is leaving many vulnerable individuals unable to afford their rent and at risk of exploitation. ‘Sex for rent’ crimes are not only vile, but completely illegal and the Government must do more to ensure those committing this crime are being brought to justice.

The current Crown Prosecution Service guidelines for prostitution cover advertising in telephone boxes and newspapers, but not digital platforms. It is vital these guidelines are fit for purpose and police are given the tools they need to stamp out this crime.

Updating these guidelines is long overdue and further inaction will leave some of the most vulnerable in our society with a choice of homelessness or exploitation.

LIB DEMS WOULD:

• Secure the future of our NHS, focusing on social care and mental health with an extra £6bn per year, funded through a penny in the pound on income tax.
• Improve living standards for 9.6m parents and children, by reversing George Osborne’s cuts to the “work allowance” under Universal Credit, costing £3bn.
• Invest an extra £2.8bn in to the schools budget, by reversing the Government’s proposed cuts to school funding.
• Scrap business rates – replacing them with a tax on land values known as the Commercial Landowner Levy.  The reformed system would increase incentives to invest in new equipment and renovations, and cut taxes for businesses in nine out of ten English local authorities.
• Reverse Conservative cuts to Corporations Tax – still leaving the UK with the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G7.
• Work with the EU to crack down on tax avoidance by the tech titans, and working to secure agreement on taxing multi-nationals’ profits.
• Reform wealth taxation – bringing capital gains and dividend taxes into line with income taxes, removing the most generous pension tax reliefs from the highest earners, and replacing the inheritance tax system with a fairer lifetime transfer tax.

Fiscal Phil’s sticking plaster Budget

Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget, Liberal Democrat Leader and former Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

This was all very modest stuff, with more in it for potholes than schools and the police. A standstill non-event.

With growth remaining stubbornly low and Brexit weighing down our economy, it is clear the big problems are still to be tackled. It was a sticking plaster Budget, when major surgery lies ahead.

If we are to see an end to austerity, then we need a proper injection of cash – at least £19bn according to the IFS – in our public services. The Chancellor said he could end austerity without raising taxes, but that is highly unlikely in practice.

The Chancellor dined out on the borrowing improvements the OBR has given him, but these are overshadowed by the damaging impact Brexit will have on the UK’s public finances. These costs, which could reach £80bn a year in the event of ‘no deal’, risk turning today’s Budget into a sideshow.

Conservative Government throwing in the towel on halting climate change

Responding to the the Chancellor’s Budget, former Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey said:

This budget is grossly disappointing for those, like me, who care about fighting climate change and protecting the environment. The Chancellor has simply thrown in the towel.

The Tories have frozen fuel duty, slashed electric car subsides, committed £30bn to new road building and promise to continue at the same level subsidises to the oil and gas industry, while offering a measly £60 million to planting new trees, as if that will negate the damage they’re doing.

Liberal Democrats demand better. We would deliver a green budget, which promises more investment in renewable energy, not fossil fuels, borrowing to invest in infrastructure like rail, buses and electric vehicle charging points.

Budget clouded by Brexit disarray and uncertainty

Responding to the Budget this afternoon, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake said:

May and Hammond can’t agree what a no-deal Brexit will mean for the Budget. Hammond thinks it will require a whole new, emergency budget while May has attempted to save face and insist the Budget will stand regardless. What a mess.

This fingers-crossed Budget is predicated on the Tories’ hopes that despite the mess they are making of Brexit the economy won’t suffer too severely. In reality, the Tories’ infighting has them gambling with the UK’s finances.

Liberal Democrats demand better. Brexit must not be allowed to make the UK poorer, that is why we need a final vote on the Brexit deal with an option to remain in the EU.

Lib Dems: Gamblers face another year of being held captive to FOBTs

Responding to the Chancellor’s announcement today that the £2 maximum stake for Fixed-Odds-Betting-Terminals will not be implemented until October 2019, former Liberal Democrat Communities Minister Lord Foster said:

We know with absolute certainty that this delay will see yet more lives ruined by these highly addictive machines.

Communities up and down the country see the damage that can be done when hundreds of pounds can be lost in minutes if not seconds, day after day.

Families will be despairing tonight that a problem gambler that they care about faces another full year of living captive to these machines until the Government step-in and do the right thing.

‘Hot air’ Tories abandon commitment to latte levy

Responding to the Chancellor’s announcement that the Government will dump their commitment to a latte levy, Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael said:

It is bitterly disappointing that the Chancellor has abandoned the Government’s commitment to introduce a levy on plastic cups.

It proves the Tories are full of hot air and no credible action. It also proves what I have said all along, that headlines are more important to them than the environment.

Our Environment deserves better. Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for a ban all single-use plastic within three years, the introduction of a levy on all producers and retailers that produce or use single-use plastics and the introduction of a latte levy.

Chancellor’s Universal Credit spending barely recovers half the cuts of his predecessor

Responding to the Chancellor’s Universal Credit plans from the Budget, Liberal Democrat DWP spokesperson Stephen Lloyd said:

After stubbornly resisting for far too long, the Government has finally responded to pressure from the Liberal Democrats and put back some of the money into the Universal Credit Work Allowance, which they stupidly cut the moment we were no longer around to stop them.

However, the £1.7 billion per year the Chancellor committed to still does not make up for the £3 billion pa his predecessor George Osborne slashed from the benefit in 2015. We also heard nothing on ending the gratuitous benefits freeze early, or on making UC fairer for the self-employed.

UC’s serious design flaws were also not addressed, from long waiting times that are pushing people into indebtedness, to problems in how landlords are paid housing benefit. The pain caused by the roll-out of UC is not over yet.

Welsh Lib Dems – Budget a Golden Opportunity

Ahead of the UK Government’s budget, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have urged Chancellor Phillip Hammond to seize the opportunity the budget presents to end austerity and create a fairer, more prosperous Wales.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats are calling on the UK Government to stop Brexit, fix Britain’s broken tax system, fund public services properly and give Wales the investment it needs to flourish.

Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds said:

Wales is not the best it can be, we cannot become a country that accepts rising homelessness, food bank usage and poverty as inevitable. This budget is a golden opportunity to help create a society where no-one is enslaved by poverty.

By pausing and fixing Universal Credit, delivering ambitious Growth Deals for North and Mid Wales and truly ending austerity, the UK Government can improve the lives of people across Wales who need a helping hand.

We have a clear plan to stop Brexit, fix Britain’s broken tax system and fund public services properly. We urge the UK Government to follow our plan to create the fairer, more prosperous Wales we need. We demand a free, fair and Liberal Wales and our plan helps deliver it.

50p coin nothing more than reminder of long lasting Brexit damage

Responding to reports that the Chancellor is expected to announce the launch of a 50p Brexit coin in the budget, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake said:

The 50p coin will be nothing more than a sad and permanent reminder of the long lasting damage Brexit will do to our economy, credibility and influence in the world.

If the PM was to feature on one face of the coin, the other must of course feature Corbyn, because the catastrophe that is Brexit is very much a joint enterprise.

Rather than a nonsensical coin, the people deserve a final say on Brexit including the option to remain in the EU.

Conservatives acting like school kids on post-Brexit immigration

Responding to the Home Affairs Select Committee’s report slamming the Government for its “cursory” response to its report on the future of EEA migration, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey said:

On planning for post-Brexit immigration, Conservative Ministers are acting like school kids who can’t be bothered to do their homework.

Their response to the Select Committee looks like it was scribbled down five minutes before class. They say they’ve almost finished their white paper, honest, while the dog apparently ate their Immigration Bill.

Liberal Democrats demand better. Ministers must publish their plans now, so that we can scrutinise them. Migration has brought big benefits to our economy and our society, and we will not let the Conservatives throw them away.

Lib Dems: Grayling’s complacency on airline route access is breathtaking

Responding to reports that the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has admitted to members of the Airport Operators Association that no talks on route access have been undertaken in preparation for Brexit, Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson Baroness Randerson said:

Grayling’s complacency is breathtaking and is not shared by the aviation industry, who are at the sharp end of the uncertainty Brexit has created.

Only last week the NAO reported on the lack of preparation at our ports and airports and the huge economic and security impact that is likely to have. Instead, the Tory Government is happy to muddle on leaving passengers with huge uncertainty. Liberal Democrats demand better.

This Government have been saying that everything will be fine for over two years, but they have never attempted to grapple with the complex detail Brexit. This is why the Liberal Democrats are demanding a final say on Brexit with an option to remain in the EU.

Lamb: Govt mental health funding falls well short

Former Liberal Democrat Mental Health Minister Norman Lamb has today warned the Chancellor’s expected announcement of £2bn for mental health services “falls well short” and called for investment in “community-based care as well as early years support.”

Mr Lamb said:

While extra funding for mental health is sorely needed, the Chancellor is investing the bare minimum. For all the Government’s spin, this £2 billion falls well short of the amount experts say is needed to deliver vital improvements to services and achieve real equality between mental and physical health.

Today’s announcement also recycles commitments set out in the Coalition Government’s blueprint for children’s mental health, which pledged a named mental health lead in schools as well as a dedicated professional in specialist NHS services. The Conservatives have failed to drive these changes through nearly five years on. Why should we expect things will be any different this time around?

Liberal Democrats demand better. The Government has failed to ensure that money from previous spending commitments gets through to where it is needed. It is vital that the new funding is used properly to invest in community-based care as well as early years support.

Lib Dems: Chancellor ignores rising violence and worsening prison crisis

Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget today, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey said:

Given the sharp rise of serious violence on our streets and the worsening crisis in our prisons, it’s almost unbelievable that the Chancellor’s Budget contained not a single penny to tackle these problems. Merely promising to ‘review police spending power’ isn’t nearly good enough.

Liberal Democrats demand better. We are calling for an extra £300 million a year to boost community policing and urgent investment to recruit more prison officers.

Government infrastructure plans lack future proofing

Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson Jenny Randerson has urged the Government to invest in “rail, low emission buses and electric charging points” as reports indicate the Government is set to announce new investment for roads in the Budget.

Jenny Randerson said:

While it is welcome news that the Government will finally set aside much needed investment for our roads, their infrastructure plan lacks any future proofing.

With climate change an ever greater threat, Liberal Democrats demand better. Ministers should be focusing on a model shift away from car use to public transport. That means investment in rail, low emission buses and electric charging points.

Chancellor should work with EU on taxing tech giants

Responding to reports that the Chancellor is considering a tax on tech giants, Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable said:

Tech giants have got away without paying their fair share for too long. That is why I have urged the Chancellor on numerous occasions to introduce a new tax, and he has accepted the argument.

The Chancellor will know the EU has already indicated a new EU-wide agreement is doable. Instead of working in isolation, the Chancellor should be willing to work with our European allies and others around the world. Now is the time to deliver.

Chancellor cannot be allowed to ignore Brexit concerns

Responding to the Chancellor’s refusal on The Andrew Marr show to answer whether the Chequers plan would leave people worse or better off, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake said:

Either the Chancellor doesn’t know the answer, which makes him incompetent, or he does and he is choosing to mislead the public. He cannot be allowed to ignore Brexit concerns.

The reality, as spelled out by the OBR, is that Brexit uncertainty is already weakening public finances by £15 billion annually. No matter the Brexit, any Brexit will be a disaster. The Budget has no hope of making a difference.

No-one voted to be poorer. That is why the people must have the final say on Brexit, including the option to remain in the EU.

Cable: Broken business rates system should be abolished

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable has warned the Chancellor’s business rates relief is nothing more than “hand-to-mouth support” and has called for the broken business rates system to be abolished.

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said:

The UK high street is suffering the worst year on record, with in-store sales falling and hundreds of thousands of jobs lost.

While I welcome any relief, hand-to-mouth support for businesses simply isn’t sustainable. Liberal Democrats demand better. There needs to be a fundamental change to the system.

We must create a level playing field between the high street and online retailers. That means scrapping the broken business rates system and replacing it with a tax on land values that would boost investment and cut taxes for businesses in nine out of ten English local authorities.

The Liberal Democrats want to abolish business rates and replace it with a tax on land values, the Commercial Landowner Levy (CLL). The levy would remove buildings and machinery from calculations and tax only the land value of commercial sites, boosting investment and cutting taxes for businesses in nine out of ten English local authorities.

Liberal Democrat plans, passed at their Autumn conference, include:

Business rates should be abolished and replaced by a Commercial Landowner Levy based on the value of commercial land only
The levy should be paid by owners rather than tenants
Non-residential stamp duty should be scrapped to improve the efficiency of the commercial property market
Commercial land should be taxed regardless of whether the buildings above it are occupied; the tax should also apply to unused and derelict commercial land.