UK Labour Party members refuse prime minister’s suggested cuts to winter fuel payment
Date
9/29/2024 3:18:48 AM
(MENAFN) Members of Britain’s governing Labour Party deal Prime Minister Keir Starmer a setback on Wednesday by rejecting his decision to cut payments that offset winter heating costs for millions of retirees. The vote on the final day of Labour’s annual conference is not binding, but it undermines Starmer’s efforts to unite his center-left party around the contentious measure.
Since taking office in July, Starmer has warned that the dire state of public finances inherited from the last Conservative government necessitates difficult choices, such as ending the winter fuel allowance worth between GBP200 and GBP300 (USD262 and USD393) for all but the poorest pensioners. Trade unions, which are among Labour’s funders and allies, organized resistance to the cut at the conference in Liverpool, northwest England, and forced a vote demanding the decision be reversed. The motion was narrowly passed in a show-of-hands vote amid cheers and jeers in the conference hall.
“I do not understand how our new Labour government can cut the winter fuel payment for pensioners and leave the super-rich untouched," said Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, to applause from delegates. “This is not what people voted for. It is the wrong decision and it needs to be reversed.”
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