East Midlands Liberal Democrats

The 'spy powers bill' is a step too far - all parties should unite to oppose it in the Lords

The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill would give police informants total immunity. Yet the government has failed to provide any evidence as to why that's necessary

Having served as a police officer for more than 30 years, I know that it is an undesirable but necessary part of policing to rely on informants, or "covert human intelligence sources" as they are now known. And, on occasion, those informants need to be tasked to commit crime.

Over 100 Liberal Democrat councillors from across the East Midlands have signed a letter to the Secretary of State for Local Government, Robert Jenrick MP, calling for a halt to controversial Government plans to abolish Borough and District Councils across the region and replace them with larger Unitary authorities.

The Liberal Democrats have warned it is "shameful" that bereaved families of NHS and care workers who die of coronavirus risk losing access to welfare benefits if they receive payments under the government's Covid-19 compensation scheme and called on Ministers to "scrap this senseless rule immediately."

The Government has confirmed that families who receive the £60,000 payout under the scheme will no longer be able to claim for universal credit, housing benefit or pension credit, as they would be in breach of capital limits.

Layla Moran led the cross-party campaign calling for the introduction of the Covid-19 compensation scheme for families of NHS and care workers who lose their lives to coronavirus.

Figures she uncovered in July revealed only 19 families had benefited so far from the scheme, despite there being over 540 Covid-19 related deaths of health and social care workers in the UK.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said:

"It is utterly shameful that bereaved families of NHS and care workers face losing access to benefits if they receive a payment from the Covid-19 compensation scheme.

"This scheme was set up to provide financial security and comfort to the loveed ones of those who tragically died on the frontline against coronavirus.

"This exercise in penny pinching is completely tone deaf and risks rubbing salt in the wounds of grieving families. The Government must scrap this senseless rule immediately."

ENDS.

The latest EU Settlement Scheme Statistics, published by the Home Office, show more than 140,000 EU citizens applied to live and work in the UK after Brexit in November.

These figures show 361,900 people are still waiting for a decision, with 2,592,800 applications received but only 2,230,900 concluded.

The Liberal Democrats are making a new commitment to fighting knife crime.

No parent should have to bury their child.

It's crushing to see it happening so much in the news. Knife crime has become an epidemic on our streets. In 2017-18, over 800 teenagers were admitted to hospital with stab wounds.

There are various causes - but the Conservatives' drastic cuts to our police have made things much worse. As have youth service closures due to the Tories' cuts to local government.