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Oh, how embarrassing.
Apparently Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and the rest of the UK’s Labour government are saying that they have been able to restore winter fuel payments for 75 per cent of pensioners because the cuts they made last year – including to winter fuel payments – have put the economy back on a firm footing.
They haven’t; it isn’t.
But here’s Rachel Reeves making the claim:
And here’s Sophie Ridge of Sky News, absolutely demolishing Treasury Minister James Murray when he tried to repeat it:
She’s right; the evidence does not support the claim.
Five books are gone – 45 to go!
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The UK has lurched from one over-borrowing crisis to another because of interest rate rises that Reeves did not (apparently) foresee; international events like US President Donald Trump’s imposition of huge tariffs on imports into his country have de-stabilised matters more; and Reeves’s own decision to increase the minimum wage, taxes and National Insurance on businesses mean the economy is facing serious difficulties with fewer jobs on offer and less money circulating – meaning lower demand.
Only today, the BBC was reporting on the dearth of jobs:
UK companies are holding back on hiring or are not replacing workers who leave, sending job vacancies tumbling, official figures suggest.
The number of available jobs fell by 63,000 between March and May while the unemployment rate ticked higher.
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“There continues to be a weakening in the labour market,” said Liz McKeown, director of econonic statistics at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), adding that there had been a noticeable drop in the number of people on payrolls.
In April, National Insurance Contributions paid by employers increased while a rise in the minimum wage came into force.
The estimated number of available jobs fell to 736,000 over the three months to May.
“Feedback from our vacancies survey suggests some firms may be holding back from recruiting new workers or replacing people when they move on,” said Ms McKeown.
The figures also showed that the unemployement rate rose from 4.5% to 4.6% – the highest in almost four years and could rise higher, according to Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK.
“It is likely that businesses will look to offset some of the rise in employment costs through a combination of reducing headcount and slowing hiring activity,” she said.
“Given this, we expect the unemployment rate to edge higher over the coming year.”
The rise in average wages slowed to 5.2% between February and April, easing from a 5.6% increase.
However, it remains above the rate of inflation, which increased to 3.5% for the year to April.
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It is no surprise that Labour is hiding behind a lie. The obvious explanation for the U-turn on winter fuel payments is that Labour scrambled to make savings on expenditure and took the money from the easiest immediate target: pensioners who couldn’t fight back.
The only apparent reasons for that decision being reversed are:
- The optics were terrible – it looked like Labour was deliberately victimising the vulnerable, because Labour was deliberately victimising the vulnerable, and the party suffered for it at the ballot box in May’s local elections; and
- Labour found some other vulnerable victims in the shape of disabled people, who are being attacked with another lie – that they need to lose the Personal Independence Payment in order to make them find jobs. PIP is paid to people who are in work as well as to those who aren’t.
The simple facts are that the number of jobs available to be taken are reducing – re-read the excerpt from the BBC article above and you can see the truth of that; and any cash-strapped employer, facing a choice between taking on an able-bodied person or a disabled worker who needs special adaptations and medical considerations, is naturally going to take the cheaper option.
Not only that but – as I keep having to explain – cutting £4.8 billion from PIP payments over the course of the current Parliament will not save a single penny from the public purse. The burden will simply be shifted to the NHS, social services and other public services that will be asked to cope as disabled people fall ill or suffer other consequences of this shocking attack.
Five books are gone – 45 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
Every Labour representative who is pushing the lie deserves to be ridiculed and reviled. If they cannot be honest, they should not be in government and we are entirely within our rights to humiliate them and hound them out.
Let’s get on with it.
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Labour’s excuse for restoring winter fuel payments suffers instant – humiliating – collapse
Share this post:
Oh, how embarrassing.
Apparently Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and the rest of the UK’s Labour government are saying that they have been able to restore winter fuel payments for 75 per cent of pensioners because the cuts they made last year – including to winter fuel payments – have put the economy back on a firm footing.
They haven’t; it isn’t.
But here’s Rachel Reeves making the claim:
And here’s Sophie Ridge of Sky News, absolutely demolishing Treasury Minister James Murray when he tried to repeat it:
She’s right; the evidence does not support the claim.
Five books are gone – 45 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
The UK has lurched from one over-borrowing crisis to another because of interest rate rises that Reeves did not (apparently) foresee; international events like US President Donald Trump’s imposition of huge tariffs on imports into his country have de-stabilised matters more; and Reeves’s own decision to increase the minimum wage, taxes and National Insurance on businesses mean the economy is facing serious difficulties with fewer jobs on offer and less money circulating – meaning lower demand.
Only today, the BBC was reporting on the dearth of jobs:
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
It is no surprise that Labour is hiding behind a lie. The obvious explanation for the U-turn on winter fuel payments is that Labour scrambled to make savings on expenditure and took the money from the easiest immediate target: pensioners who couldn’t fight back.
The only apparent reasons for that decision being reversed are:
The simple facts are that the number of jobs available to be taken are reducing – re-read the excerpt from the BBC article above and you can see the truth of that; and any cash-strapped employer, facing a choice between taking on an able-bodied person or a disabled worker who needs special adaptations and medical considerations, is naturally going to take the cheaper option.
Not only that but – as I keep having to explain – cutting £4.8 billion from PIP payments over the course of the current Parliament will not save a single penny from the public purse. The burden will simply be shifted to the NHS, social services and other public services that will be asked to cope as disabled people fall ill or suffer other consequences of this shocking attack.
Five books are gone – 45 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
Every Labour representative who is pushing the lie deserves to be ridiculed and reviled. If they cannot be honest, they should not be in government and we are entirely within our rights to humiliate them and hound them out.
Let’s get on with it.
Share this post:
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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