News from The Labour Party

Purnell: Lansley shameful to say recession is good for us

Andrew Lansley’s comments that “on many counts, recession can be good for us” show that when it comes to the economy David Cameron’s Conservative Party are not just out of their depth but totally out of touch. The Tory comments come on the day Labour launches new help for people to stay in work rather than taking extended sick leave.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Conservative Party stood by as child poverty doubled, interest rates hit 15 per cent, and unemployment reached 3 million. Even for the party that thought ‘unemployment was a price worth paying’, it is shameful to describe the recession as ‘good for us’.

James Purnell MP, Labour’s Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, responding to Andrew Lansley’s comments that the recession can be ‘good for us’, said:

“Now more than ever it’s important to help people who are sick to stay in work so that they can support themselves and their families. During the Tory recession people’s health suffered as they were abandoned to long term unemployment or thrown onto incapacity benefit. Yet today the Tories think a recession will be good for people’s health.

“The Conservative Deputy Chairman may already regret letting the cat out of the bag when he said ‘the recession has to take its course’ but it remains Conservative policy. Now we know that not only would the Conservatives do nothing but sit back and watch the recession ‘take its course’ – they actually believe it would be ‘good for us’.

“There is a clear choice for the British people: Labour’s approach will give real help now for families and businesses to help Britain come through these difficult times stronger and sooner; the Conservatives would sit back and watch as the recession became longer and deeper.”

Other news from The Labour Party

• Miliband tells Cameron: Save 6,000 nurses by abandoning NHS reorganisation now - 5 February 2012
• "We need what you might call 'one nation banking'" - 3 February 2012
• Burnham: "Mental health must move from the edges to the centre of the NHS" - 31 January 2012