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Labour refuses to publish impact assessment of winter fuel payment cuts until after MPs have voted

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/winter-fuel-payment-starmer-reeves-b2609520.html

Independent Exclusive: Energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh confirmed her department has assessed the impact the policy change will have on pensioners living in fuel poverty, but said only that it will be published ‘in due course’

The government has assessed the number of people who will be pushed into fuel poverty by its winter fuel payment cuts, but will not publish the figures until after MPs vote on the measure, The Independent can reveal.

Answering a parliamentary question from former Labour frontbencher John McDonnell, energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh confirmed her department has assessed the impact the policy change will have on pensioners living in fuel poverty.

But, asked by Mr McDonnell and The Independent, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero refused to say when the document would be published, only promising that it would be “in due course”.

Her answer suggests that while the department has carried out the analysis, it will not be published until after MPs have voted on the measure. Mr McDonnell said “it is no way to implement policy” and he is “fearful of the impact on those who will be put at serious risk”.

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/winter-fuel-payment-starmer-reeves-b2609520.html

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

The dishonesty of Rachel Reeves

Continue ReadingLabour refuses to publish impact assessment of winter fuel payment cuts until after MPs have voted

‘There will be more deaths’: Former Labour MP John McDonnell tells LBC he will not vote to scrap winter fuel benefits

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/john-mcdonnell-winter-fuel-payments-cut-benefits-labour

The left-wing MP told Lewis Goodall on LBC that he will not vote for the changes if there is no adjustment before they are put before Parliament.

Mr McDonnell said: “I will vote against it. We’ve had 14 years of austerity I don’t think my community can cope with it anymore.

“My fear is, as a result of this, there will be more deaths.”

On the policy, Mr McDonnell added: “It’s the wrong route to go down – it will disillusion people. This is not what a Labour government should be doing I’m afraid.

“My fear is there may be other austerity measures coming down the track”.

…

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/john-mcdonnell-winter-fuel-payments-cut-benefits-labour

The dishonesty of Rachel Reeves

Continue Reading‘There will be more deaths’: Former Labour MP John McDonnell tells LBC he will not vote to scrap winter fuel benefits

Zarah Sultana MP: Are Labour about to be the new party of austerity?

https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/zarah-sultana-mp-winter-fuel-payments-labour-pensioners-b1180941.html

By Zarah Sultana

Politics is a matter of life and death.

Take the Labour Government’s decision to means-test winter fuel payments. Over nine million pensioners, including many on just £12,000 a year, will lose help as we head into the cold months. Some will be forced to turn down the heating. Cold homes are linked to higher rates of strokes, heart attacks and respiratory diseases, so this policy could have fatal consequences.

That harm is entirely avoidable. These are not “tough choices” for politicians, but for those forced to choose between heating their homes and eating. Maintaining universal winter fuel payments costs £1.4 billion. Meanwhile, a modest two per cent wealth tax on assets over £10 million could raise £24 billion, more than enough to fund winter fuel payments, scrap the two-child benefit cap and support public sector workers whose wages have stagnated for over a decade.

The false narrative that resources are too limited to support both the elderly and the young pits us against each other. Within a few weeks in office, the new Labour Government has already denied help to all children with more than one sibling, and now to older people too. The Prime Minister talks about growth, but the only thing that is growing so far is avoidable poverty. No child should be born into poverty due to an arbitrary limit on family support, just as no pensioner should freeze because of arbitrary means-testing. There is still time to change course and not go ahead with this.

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https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/zarah-sultana-mp-winter-fuel-payments-labour-pensioners-b1180941.html

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

The dishonesty of Rachel Reeves

Continue ReadingZarah Sultana MP: Are Labour about to be the new party of austerity?

Unions walking a tight-rope with ‘right-wing’ Labour government, FBU leader says

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-walking-a-tight-rope-with-right-wing-labour-government-fbu-leader-says

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during his speech and press conference in the Rose Garden at 10 Downing Street, London, August 27, 2024.

Union figures weigh in on Starmer’s government at Morning Star’s TUC fringe event

UNIONS must walk a tight-rope dealing with a right-wing Labour government, a senior trade unionist has said.

TUC president and Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack made the statement at the Morning Star’s fringe meeting at the TUC Congress today.

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RMT president Alex Gordon said many of Labour’s economic policies “bear an uncanny resemblance to those of its defeated and demoralised Tory predecessors” and that Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to keep Tory spending policies “means the same but worse, as society and the economy continue to deteriorate from the cumulative impact of austerity.”

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union general secretary Fran Heathcote said it was “an absolute disgrace” that the government would not lift the widely condemned two-child benefit cap and suspended seven Labour MPs for backing this in Parliament.

The Budget will be “the defining moment in the new government,” she added, saying: “Is it going to rebuild public services and living standards or will it unleash a new wave of austerity?”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-walking-a-tight-rope-with-right-wing-labour-government-fbu-leader-says

Keir Starmer confirms that he is continuing Tory policies and that he's proud to be a red Tory.
Keir Starmer confirms that he is continuing Tory policies and that he’s proud to be a red Tory.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

The dishonesty of Rachel Reeves

Continue ReadingUnions walking a tight-rope with ‘right-wing’ Labour government, FBU leader says

Palestine supporters blockade entrance to arms factory in Kent

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-supporters-blockade-entrance-to-arms-factory-kent

Photo: Martin Pope

AN ISRAELI arms factory in Kent was under siege today [yesterday] after Palestine supporters blockaded its entrance roads.

The Instro Precision factory is part of Israeli-owned Elbit Systems, which is believed to manufacture military drones, pilotless aircraft and other weapons for Israel.

Palestine Action mounted the blockade and vehicles were used to block the entrances.

Activists also covered the premises in red paint, symbolising “Palestinian bloodshed.”

Palestine Action said the factory’s products were not affected by last week’s government announcement that 50 [dizzy:30] out of 320 arms export licences were being suspended.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-supporters-blockade-entrance-to-arms-factory-kent

Continue ReadingPalestine supporters blockade entrance to arms factory in Kent