Starmer’s Cuts Leave 10 Million Pensioners Out in the Cold
The Labour government has driven a stake through the heart of pensioner welfare. Tuesday’s Commons vote saw the death knell of winter fuel payments for millions, with cries of ‘shame’ echoing off the decaying walls of the Commons – a fitting chorus for this betrayal of the elderly.
Starmer’s cut to the winter fuel allowance not only survived it was carried with a vote tally of – 348 to 228 – reading like a tombstone for Labour’s once-vaunted commitment to social justice. In a twist of irony that would be comical if it weren’t so tragic, it was left to the Tories to play the role of defenders of the poor, their motion to block the changes falling on the deaf ears of the Labour MPs.
Unbelievably a majority of 120, Labour MPs marched through the voting lobbies, rubber-stamping a policy that will leave millions of elderly citizens shivering in the cold embrace of fiscal austerity.
Let us pause to savour the exquisite irony: a Tory motion to protect the vulnerable from a Labour government’s cold-hearted cuts. It’s as if we’ve slipped into some bizarre parallel universe where up is down, black is white, and the Labour Party has decided that pensioners are the enemy of the working class. It’s a betrayal so complete, so utterly divorced from Labour’s roots, it’s embarrassing.
This isn’t just a policy shift; it’s a seismic betrayal of Labour’s core values, wrapped in the frosty embrace of neoliberal orthodoxy. The party that once stood as the bulwark against poverty now seems hell-bent on ushering in a new era of pensioner hardship. As if keeping the two-child cap wasn’t harsh enough…
The numbers are stark: 11.4 million recipients slashed to a mere 1.5 million. That’s 10 million pensioners left out in the cold, quite literally. And for what? To plug a mythical £22 billion “black hole” that many pundits deny even exists. And if it does, you have to ask why Labour has decided to balance the books on the shivering backs of our most vulnerable.
The hypocrisy is breathtaking. While Labour tightens the screws on pensioners, they find £3 billion annually to fund “however long it takes” in Ukraine. It seems in Starmer’s Britain, geopolitical posturing trumps the welfare of our own citizens.
Fifty-two Labour MPs did not take part in the vote, including seven ministers, but it is not yet known how many had deliberately abstained or were absent from Parliament for another reason. Only one Labour MP voted against the government.
Dozens of Labour MPs were reported to have been planning to abstain in protest at the cuts despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves urging them to back the government.
Five of the seven Labour MPs suspended from the Parliamentary Party for voting against the government over the two-child benefit cap also backed the Tory motion, as did former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and other members of his independent alliance.
The Liberal Democrats, SNP, Greens and DUP also voted against the government’s move to start means testing the winter fuel payment.
Only one Labour MP, Jon Trickett, found the courage to vote against this abomination. One solitary voice of conscience in a sea of acquiescence. Mr Trickett, a relic of the Corbyn era, had the temerity to suggest that perhaps, just perhaps, the government should “be looking to raise revenues from the wealthiest in society, not working-class pensioners”. How quaint, how utterly old Labour of him, how utterly left-wing and absolutely the right thing to do!
Let’s not forget Rachel Reeves’ chilling promise from 2014 to be “tougher than the Conservatives” on benefits. Well, congratulations, Ms Reeves. You’ve outdone even the Tories in your zeal to punish the poor.
Beforehand, Prime Minister Starmer, with all the warmth of a December gale, tried to defuse anger at the TUC conference by promising a “more prosperous, secure and dynamic country… at the end of the tunnel.” One wonders if that tunnel is heated, Sir Keir, because, for millions of pensioners, the only thing at the end of their tunnel is a cold, dark winter.
Sharon Graham, the Unite union general secretary, hit the nail on the head when she accused Labour of deciding to “pick the pocket of pensioners”. But her call for a wealth tax falls on the deaf ears of a Labour leadership more concerned with appeasing the City than protecting its traditional base.
As winter approaches, 10 million pensioners face a chilling reality. The party that once stood as their champion has abandoned them to the cold.
The payments of either £200 or £300 are normally made in November and December and will still be paid to the precious few pensioners claiming pension credit to top up a low income.
Starmer, in a display of arithmetic gymnastics told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the sting would be lessened by a 4% pension increase in April. A £460 annual rise, he trumpets, as if it’s some grand act of largesse. One wonders if the Right Honourable Gentleman has noticed the cost-of-living crisis ravaging the nation, or if the warm embrace of Number 10 has rendered him immune to such trivial concerns.
For those of us not cushioned by the trappings of high office, the reality is stark. The nip of a cold night and the dread of opening heating bills will be constant companions well into this winter. These are not abstract concepts to be dismissed with a wave of the hand and a promise of spring’s bounty. They are the lived experiences of millions, experiences that seem to have escaped the grasp of our supposedly empathetic leaders.
In 2017, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour warned that Tory cuts to winter fuel payments could lead to 4,000 pensioner deaths.
John McDonnell, then-shadow chancellor, decried it as “the single biggest attack on pensioners in a generation”. How quickly Labour’s principles melt when warmed by the seat of power.
Be assured, this isn’t governance; it’s a betrayal. It’s not fiscal responsibility; it’s moral bankruptcy. And it certainly isn’t Labour as we once knew it. The party of Clement Attlee, which built the welfare state, is now dismantling it brick by frozen brick.
You have to wonder: with friends like these, who needs Tories? At least with the Conservatives, one expects a certain level of callousness towards the working class and the elderly. But from Labour? This is a betrayal so complete, so utterly divorced from the party’s roots, that one half expects to see Nye Bevan’s ghost picketing outside Parliament.
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