Rachel Reeves comes out combating after union revolt over gas funds
Rachel Reeves is facing a union revolt today over ‘cruel’ cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel payments.
Union leaders were last night manoeuvring to force a vote at Labour’s annual conference calling for her to reverse plans to axe the payment to 10 million older people.
A Labour source said the Government was ‘likely’ to lose the vote this week but insisted that Ms Reeves would not back down.
‘We’ll note it and move on,’ the source said. ‘It’s time for people to start understanding these tough choices are real.’
The Chancellor, whose gloomy warnings on the economy are blamed for undermining consumer and business confidence, will today try to strike a more upbeat note, saying her ‘optimism for Britain burns as bright as it ever has done’.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has come out fighting amid opposition to her cuts to winter fuel payments for pensioners
While a source said that the Government was likely to lose the vote, they said it was determined to press on with plans to means-test the annual payment
But she will warn the country faces ‘ruin’ unless the new government first moves to shore up the public finances.
‘I can see the prize on offer, if we make the right choices now,’ she will say. ‘And stability is the crucial foundation on which all our ambitions will be built.
‘The essential precondition for business to invest with confidence and families to plan for the future. The mini-budget showed us that any plan for growth without stability only leads to ruin.’
In a sop to critics on the Left, the Chancellor will say: ‘There will be no return to austerity.
‘Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services – and for investment and growth too.’
Hinting that spending will rise in the future, she will say: ‘Stability, paired with reform, will forge the conditions for business to invest and consumers to spend with confidence. Growth is the challenge. And investment is the solution.’
But union leaders last night urged Labour to use its massive majority to turn the spending taps on immediately – starting with the reversal of the cuts to the winter fuel payment.
The Chancellor’s decision to means-test the annual payment, which is worth up to £300, will see ten million pensioners lose out. Official figures slipped out at the weekend show that 86 per cent of pensioners living in absolute poverty will lose the payment.
Unite union boss Sharon Graham said the ‘cruel’ plan was a ‘misstep’ and should be ‘reversed’.
Unite boss Sharon Graham labelled the Chancellor’s ‘cruel’ plans a ‘misstep’ and called on Ms Reeves to reverse her decision
She warned ministers not to ignore the results of the conference vote. ‘If they choose to ignore what people are saying outside, where this is a massively hot topic – I am getting inundated with emails – then I think they will pay the price at the ballot box.
‘A Labour government has come in to make change and the first thing they do is pick the pockets of pensioners. I think there’s a problem with that.’
She added: ‘Dying in an early ditch for policies most people hate is not only silly politics, but it can also set the public mood.
‘This is particularly so, when the decision you are defending delivers so little towards whatever plan you have and is instead seen as punitive. Targeting everyday people without much money is cruel, not tough.’
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, also urged Ms Reeves to reverse the ‘ridiculous’ cuts. He told a conference fringe meeting: ‘I think the treatment of the question of poverty has been not just appalling from the point of view of any sort of socialist perspective, but also politically inept as well.’
He added: ‘You can predict it now that over the winter people will die, and there will be front-page stories about an elderly person, and the headline will be something like “Killed by Starmer cruelty”. And if the smart Alecs who give advice to the Labour leadership haven’t woken up to that, then frankly they shouldn’t be in their positions.’
The public backlash over the winter fuel cuts has panicked some Labour MPs, particularly at a time when leading figures, including Ms Reeves, Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner, are mired in controversy for taking thousands of pounds worth of free gifts.
Labour MP Rachael Maskell said the move ‘was against the values of the Labour Party’ and risks pensioners going cold
Labour MP Rachael Maskell said: ‘I have been sickened by revelations of “donations”.
‘It grates against the values of the Labour Party, created to fight for the needs of others, not self. Meanwhile pensioners are having their winter fuel payments taken, risking going cold. I trust conference votes to change this.’
Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said: ‘What does Starmer haveagainst pensioners?
‘The average pensioner faces higher energy bills and is more vulnerable to the cold – but Labour didn’t carry out a proper impact assessment before rushing through their winter fuel cut. Older people deserve better.’
