Saturday, September 07, 2024
Unease grows within Labour ranks
The papers says that frontbenchers believe the government will have to announce extra support in the budget or even earlier to cushion the blow for some of the people worst affected by the cut:
The new Labour intake’s WhatsApp group had had a string of messages about the issue, MPs said. Labour backbenchers have been spooked by the volume of correspondence they have received, with one saying they had gone from receiving a trickle of emails from worried constituents to a flood this week.
“It’s going to save us £1.5bn but that won’t be worth the political hit we’ll take this winter,” the MP said. “The rightwing press will be full of stories about elderly people sitting in A&E or on buses because they can’t afford their fuel bills and it’s the only way they can keep warm.”
Another Labour MP said: “I don’t think there is a Labour MP who isn’t worried. We’re talking to our constituents, reading our emails, this weekend we’ll be in our constituencies. I’ve had more people stopping me in the street than over Brexit. Pensioners just pleading that we don’t do this.”
A third Labour MP who represents a marginal seat said they had received about 200 emails on the issue, many of them along the lines of: “I’ve just voted Labour for the first time but never again”. A fourth MP said they were getting “absolutely tonnes” of correspondence and added: “Of all the emails I receive it’s the one [issue] where they are absolutely not coordinated. They are not part of a campaign.”
The Lords’ secondary legislation scrutiny committee warned this week that the move “may cause potential inequalities between low-income pensioners claiming benefits and low-income pensioners not claiming benefits, and it is not clear whether [the Department for Work and Pensions] has assessed this risk”. It added that the policy’s quick implementation “precludes appropriate scrutiny”.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, told the BBC on Thursday he had “concerns” and would be making representations to the government before the budget.
Some MPs have noted that local and regional newspapers are covering the cut extensively, including by pointing out how many thousands of local people will be directly affected. “It’s a cut people notice straight away, directly out of their pocket, it’s the most damaging kind,” a fifth Labour MP said.
They may only have been in power for two months, but in that time they have a chance to set the tone for the rest of their term. Do Labour really want to be remembered for penalising poor pensioners who cannot afford to heat their homes? If they don't sort this quickly, it will blight the rest of their term in government.
