Labour’s in free-fall over the Alli donations scandal, Number 10 is a circus (already forced to bin Sue Gray as Chief of Staff), and their new policies are sinking like a lead balloon. One would think CCHQ’s job attacking the government was easy. Yet somehow, they still manage to miss the mark…
Over the weekend, CCHQ decided to take a shot at the Winter Fuel Allowance cut, a policy that seems universally unpopular. They rolled out a video showcasing pensioners set to lose their allowance. Except instead of tugging at the nation’s heartstrings, the footage shows these ‘poor’ pensioners living in spacious homes – more comfortable than what many people, especially the young, can afford. They hardly appear to be hard-done-by little old folks shivering in the cold. One even appears to be wearing a solid gold Rolex…
This winter, pensioners will have to choose between heating and eating.
And that’s on Keir Starmer. pic.twitter.com/JMrqLyXtD8
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) October 4, 2024
Clearly Guido isn’t the only one who thought this was a little tone-deaf. In three days, the post got 20 million views, and only one thousand likes. Possibly the worst ratio in X history…
Last week, Starmer claimed that there had been no impact assessment on how the decision to strip millions of pensioners of winter fuel payments will affect them. He asserted: “There isn’t a report on my desk which somehow we’re not showing, that I’m not showing, as simple as that.” Turns out, that’s not true…
A response from the Treasury to a FOI request shows that they do have a “full internal policy impact assessment”, though refuse to publish it as it was part of the “formulation or development of government policy”. Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott slammed the “shocking revelation” of a “hidden analysis”. Starmer once again misleading the public on the goings on in Whitehall. So much for governing with “transparency”…
It’s no secret Starmer’s decision to scrap the winter fuel allowance has proved controversial, not just with opposition parties, within his own party as well. Now Labour councils are coming up with their own ways to ease the impact on pensioners...
Labour-led Basildon council are introducing its own alternative to the winter fuel payment scheme – Warm Home Guarantee –handing out £100 for 1000 lucky local pensioners – £100,000 of council taxpayers’ money. The stated goal on the council’s website is to help eligible pensioners access the Winter Fuel Allowance and provide additional hardship payments for those struggling with heating costs. Cllr Gavin Callaghan, Labour Leader of Basildon Council, said:
“With rising energy costs, many pensioners are facing tough choices this winter. While we can’t change government policy, we can take local action to protect our most vulnerable residents…The Warm Home Guarantee is about ensuring no pensioner in Basildon faces the cold alone.”
Local Labour politicians are clearly panicking over Reeves’ budget. Will other Labour councils dip into local taxpayers’ pockets to cover the fallout?
After Starmer’s highly contentious bill to scrap the Winter Fuel Allowance passed the Commons earlier this week, Guido thought he’d take a look at some of the previous staunchly held views of the Labour MPs who had voted in favour of it. Many happily bashed the Tories for the same policy in 2017, promising that Labour was the party of pensioners. Here are a few tweets that haven’t aged well…
Do their hearts secretly still bleed for these pensioners, or have they simply changed their minds?
It is clear that Keir’s mission to restore trust in public life has only made preliminary progress. Nonetheless, something very like a political genius is emerging from the chrysalis of his first months in office.
It is well known that the older people get, the more conservative they become. Keir’s strategy of releasing prisoners, giving asylum seekers the vote, and encouraging illegal immigration is now matched on the other side of the register by helping on their way the hobbling, wobbling, trembling, Tory-voting, benefit-scrounging, NHS-devouring pensioner population.
The Government have artfully concealed this “punishment beating of pensioners” (Edward Leigh) as a fiscally-driven measure to “fix the foundations”, “end the Tory chaos”, “restore stability to public finances”.
That argument is contestable. Several speakers pointed out that cancelling the payment may save £1.5 billion but it will tip a million pensioners into poverty – and when they take up Pension Credit it will cost £3 billion to save that £1.5.
However, there is an obvious counter.
They won’t be claiming Pension Credit if they’re dead!
None of the Government MPs or ministers had the wit to make this point. When they do, it will to shift the polls. A healthy majority of the UK electorate secretly hate the old, – the canceling of their winter fuel allowance is the most likely policy to deliver another landslide with extra rubble come 2029.
The Tories don’t see it, either.
Shadow Pensions Mel Stride opened his Opposition Day debate with some soaring, Trades Hall rhetoric invoking the semi-mythical Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Their scrutiny had not been invited and no impact assessment published to reveal the wickedness of what opposition parties affect to think of as an abhorrent and dishonest proposal to means test the benefit.
Labour’s Mike Amesbury spoiled Mel’s moment by asking which Tory minister when in government had called for this very means testing. There was a pause while Mel looked around for the answer. He decided not to claim the credit. He continued with train drivers, trade union paymasters and “We are the party of triple-lock plus!” He meant it as a good thing.
The Tory’s Ancient of Days, Edward Leigh, while recognising that Labour had guaranteed they wouldn’t do what they had now done, observed that increasing the state pension every year was the route to national bankruptcy.
The Conservative known as Dr Johnson demonstrated how bankrupt the party already when she told the House, “The first job of government is to keep people safe”. The allure of fascism is latent in the political mentality of all parties.
Ed Miliband arrived on the front bench towards the end of the debate, lured in perhaps by reference to his Great British Energy company “bringing down the price of electricity”. Ed is close personal friend of the prime minister and a key part of the elimination strategy.
It defies the laws of physics let alone economics, that more wind will reduce bills. A massive increase in renewable energy will see whole retirement communities turn into a deep-frozen necropolis. The only way poverty-stricken pensioners will keep warm is by huddling together in the local crematorium.
It’s taking Labour election strategy to a whole new level.
PS: Candidates for metaphor-mixing awards are “balancing the books on the backs of pensioners” (Kirsty Blackman); “a sticking plaster solution of kicking the can down the road” (Andy Mcnae) and “we should not listen to their crocodile tears” (Paul Waugh, getting one of the loudest cheers of the day).
Labour’s move to scrap the winter fuel allowance for millions has sailed through Parliament, as expected. MPs rejected a Tory motion to reverse the cut by 348 to 228. Yet it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Starmer, as 53 of his own Labour backbenchers failed to back the policy, with one—Jon Trickett—even siding with the Tories and voting against it. While some absentees were chalked up to official business, the numbers are still a blow to Starmer. It’s worse than his last controversial policy put to the Commons, the two-child benefit cap, where the whips managed to secure 363 votes. Meanwhile, opposition parties are still fuelled with rage over the policy…
