Winter Fuel Payment scrapping shows Keir Starmer has overlooked key source of funding
Whatever the debate about the exact size and origin of the Governments’ black hole, there is no question that they have made choices. Those choices have resulted in Labour vested interests receiving vast amounts of money.
The Trade Unions are already “quids in” with big handouts to: junior doctors , train drivers, GPs and no doubt many more to come. The Labour/Left supporting Green Energy sector stands to gain from Mr Milliband’s mad Net Zero 2030 target at the expense of taxpayers and consumers.
Another choice that the Labour Party has made is to deprive pensioners of winter fuel allowance , denying some of the least well off in the country of a basic need, warmth in winter. To add insult to injury the cost of the fuel necessary for warmth will be made even more expensive by Net Zero extremism.
It is intriguing as to why Messrs Starmer and Reeves have decided to court political controversy in order to push this agenda. Is it the sheer incompetence of not reading the political room correctly? Is it designed to send a message of Labour’s loyalty to their Trade Union masters, while simultaneously trying to send a message to the markets that financial prudence rules?
Could it be that they are being initially generous to the Unions in order to pick a fight later when they greedily come back for more? To be a pre cursor to a hard line on the NHS, and a to sign to taxpayers that there will be hardship they will have to bare? Could they really be so convoluted and clever?
There is one thing for sure as one watches Labour Ministers, one after another, squirming on TV while trying to justify the actions of the leadership, that this Government has not had an auspicious start, especially coupled with their equally hard line on free speech and the cloth-eared response to public concern regarding migration.
Most intriguing is why this administration has not looked elsewhere for funds. The UK currently has over five million people who are inactive by choice or because they consider themselves unfit for work. This drives the need for migrant workers with consequent cost, but is also a cost to taxpayers if they are receiving the support of benefits and rely on NHS services.
The numbers who are inactive are at an all-time high and were boosted by the monumental error of lockdowns during the Covid period. Even some in the Labour Party now seem to recognise that this is unsustainable.
A drive to get people on benefits back to work is not only economically important but is also vital for those concerned. Work is good for people, it provides a pattern and purpose to life, it engenders dignity as people are able to provide for themselves and their families, it reflects the natural state of humanity who are not meant to be idle.
Before robbing vulnerable pensioners of their benefits, which will then place an additional cost and burden on the NHS as they become ill in the winter, would the Government not be better lifting the cost burden on the health services and taxpayers by getting the economically inactive back to work?
John LONGWORTH is an entrepreneur and businessman, Chairman of the Independent Business Network of family businesses. He was formerly an MEP.
