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Labour conference backs call to reverse winter fuel payment cut in blow for Keir Starmer
by Ashlie Blakey · Manchester Evening NewsA vote calling for Labour to reverse its cut to the winter fuel allowance has been backed by party conference members in a blow for Sir Keir Starmer.
Delegates backed a union motion calling for the cut to be reversed at Labour's annual conference today (September 25). The vote is not binding on the Government and ministers have made it clear the policy will not be changed, but it sent a strong message to the Prime Minister and puts further pressure on him over the controversial decision to take away from the benefit from millions of pensioners.
Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham won several rounds of applause when she made a powerful plea for the allowance to be restored. She told the Liverpool conference: “People simply do not understand, I do not understand, how our new Labour Government can cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and leave the super rich untouched.
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"This is not what people voted for. It is the wrong decision and needs to be reversed. We are the sixth richest economy in the world. We have the money. Britain needs investment, not austerity mark two.
"We won’t get any gold badge for shaving peanuts off our debt. Let’s hold up our heads and be proud to be Labour. Let’s put our arms round the working class and make lasting change."
Ms Graham added: "Our public services and British industry need investment now. It’s no good having sympathy for workers at Grangemouth losing their jobs.
"They don’t need pity. They need Labour to step up to the plate and not allow a billionaire, who buys a football club as a hobby, to throw these workers on the scrap heap.
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"We cannot leave Britain at the whim of footloose corporations. Hoping for them to invest is a prayer, not a plan. Yes, Britain is broken.
"Yes, the Tories have left a mess and yes, they are to blame. But Labour is now in Government, and we can’t keep making everyday people pay."
Alan Tate, of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said the winter fuel payment cut had 'overshadowed' the work of the new Labour Government. He said: "The CWU has been inundated with emails and calls from our retired members worried about choosing between heating and eating."
Sir Keir said in his conference speech on Tuesday that he understood concern over the winter fuel allowance but stressed that stabilising the economy was the first step of a long-term plan, adding: "Every pensioner will be better off with Labour."
He said: "The risk of showing to the world, as the Tories did, that this country does not fund its policies properly, that is a risk we can never take again. Stabilising our economy is the first step of this long-term plan.
"The only way we can keep prices low, cut NHS waiting lists and secure the triple lock so that every pensioner in this country, every pensioner, will be better off with Labour."