Has Labour consigned 4,000 pensioners to death?
Its own research said 4,000 pensioners would die if winter fuel payments were withdrawn so has Labour consigned 4,000 pensioners to death?
Let’s not be coy about this either. By “Labour”, we should mean everyone in the Parliamentary Labour Party who did not actively oppose Keir Starmer’s demand to strip the payment from all pensioners, leaving only Pension Credit recipients to retain it. I would include those who abstained or found another reason not to attend; this was an important vote and they all knew it.
So that means everybody in the PLP apart from Jon Trickett (the only party MP who actively opposed it).
Five of the seven whose membership was suspended voted to oppose it. Good for them.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the other members of his Independent Alliance also opposed it, as did the SNP, DUP and the Greens. The Tories tabled the motion to oppose, so they voted that way too.
It still wasn’t enough. Labour’s overwhelming Parliamentary majority, won with the lowest vote share in any UK election, was enough to win by 120 votes – 348 to 228.
So that’s the score. Knowing from their own research that the move may kill 4,000 people – who they had promised to protect in their election manifesto only just over two months ago – 348 Labour MPs voted to take away the winter fuel payment anyway.
It’s possible that they did it because they believed it was another of Keir Starmer’s loyalty tests, and they didn’t want to be thrown out into the cold like the seven mentioned above. Another Angry Voice suggests as much here.
The current excuse is that pensions are rising by four per cent in April, increasing the full state pension by £460 a year.
The BBC points out that
pension payments are made throughout the year, rather than in a lump sum like winter fuel payments, and are not intended to only cover heating costs.
But that is avoiding the obvious problem with Labour excuse, which is that, to quote Game of Thrones, WINTER IS COMING.
An increase of £8.82 per week won’t help anyone who doesn’t make it to next April because they don’t have enough to pay their bills now. And what will energy bills be by next April, anyway?
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Starmer is clearly lying when he claims that we cannot afford £1.5 billion to stop pensioners from dying of the cold:
“Prime Minister Keir Starmer recommits to £3 billion a year of military support for Ukraine until 2030/31 and for as long as needed.”
Source: Recent UK government press release.