HARD WORKING Labour leaders are not having Sunday off. The Party has today released plans to make the streets safer – by getting more police and security staff into frontline posts.
Labour’s plans would restore many of the public sector jobs cut by the Tories during their last two years in government. The Tories will probably throw a big hissy fit as soon as they notice the policy – and suggest that Labour can’t afford to bring people back to work. However, once you stop paying people benefits, your benefits bill goes down. Once people get into work, your tax take goes up – without any great pain to the individuals who are paying. And once the new workers start spending their wages, they deliver you a helpful boost to the economy. Little could make the Labour approach more clearly different from the austerity approach favoured by the Conservatives.
Where the Tories have cut 37,000 staff from the police and security organsations, Labour will restore: •10,000 police; •3,000 firefighters; •3,000 prison officers; •1,000 security and intelligence agency staff; •500 border guards.
Explaining the move, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn said; “Ensuring the safety of our communities demands properly resourced action across many fronts. We will also legislate to ensure safe staffing levels in the NHS, including for our ambulance services. “As well as full funding for our frontline and first response services, Labour will properly resource the partner agencies in other frontline public services, including schools and colleges, and local authorities. These agencies are charged with a duty to identify those individuals vulnerable to violent extremism but under the current government they have been held back and barely been able to provide their own core services. Only Labour is serious about properly resourcing our security and frontline services.”
The Labour Party was also keen to point out that it has not adopted an authoritarian agenda. Its commitment to funding frontline staff is matched by a commitment to uphold individual rights and civil liberties. Jeremy Corbyn added, “It means upholding and enforcing our individual rights, promoting community relations, supporting our emergency services, tackling and preventing crime and protecting us from danger, including threats of terror and violence.”
His words were echoed by Richard Burgon, Shadow Justice Secretary, who said, “Labour will uphold the rights which make our communities safer, including a pledge to maintain the Human Rights Act and to strengthen judicial oversight over the powers of intelligence services. We will back up our legal protections with adequate resourcing across our security and justice systems.”
•Read more about it: Corbyn: act now to reduce the terror threat http://londonbangla.com/corbyn-act-now-reduce-terror-threat/ Corbyn: together, Labour can win http://londonbangla.com/corbyn-together-labour-can-win/
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