Sir Keir Starmer's decision to cut Winter Fuel Payment not only taints his time in office but also his legacy
Sir Keir Starmer’s Winter Fuel Payment cut is not the first time a Labour Prime Minister has seemingly ‘betrayed’ his supporters.
The Prime Minister has been attacked online for his decision to cut the Winter Fuel Payment this winter with very little notice. Age UK has also launched a petition in favour of saving the payment for struggling pensioners, with over half a million signing. To many, it is shocking that a Labour Prime Minister would introduce such a policy.
Yet Sir Keir Starmer is not the first Labour Prime Minister who has been deemed a ‘’betrayer’’ of voters for going against core Labour ideology. Ramsay MacDonald, Labour’s first Prime Minister came into office in 1924, a hundred years before Starmer, and again in 1929. This was pivotally, during the Great Depression. Crisis hit Britain just a few months after their re-election, with unemployment increasing at such an unprecedented level that the cost of unemployment benefits rose from £12 million in 1928 to £125 million by 1931.
The financial crisis fragmented the Labour Party and the cabinet failed to agree on a solution. MacDonald promoted cuts to unemployment benefits - sacrilege to many cabinet and grassroot Labour members, who argued that Labour existed to aid the underprivileged, not deprive them of help. He then went on to lead the ‘National Coalition’ during the Great Depression, abandoning his own party.
Labour continued to hate MacDonald, with key Labour figures such as Clement Atlee openly expressing their contempt towards him. It was said that during Parliament, MacDonald asked his colleagues why people were laughing at him. His legacy even continues to divide the Labour Party now.
I can’t help but draw parallels between the decisions of these two leaders. The decision to cut Winter Fuel allowance will cause approximately 10 million people to lose their entitlement to the payments, including 1.6 million disabled people. Ironically, in 2017, Labour researched that the Conservative Government Plans to scrap the payments for ‘’better-off pensioners’’ could lead to almost 4,000 additional deaths. It is therefore unsurprising that people are accusing Sir Kier Starmer of betraying pensioners.
Starmer, much like MacDonald, will undoubtedly find that he has lost support from voters for his ‘’unforgivable’’ disregard for the welfare of pensioners. Clearly Ramsay MacDonald’s story should have acted as a warning to Starmer about the consequences of angering not only Trade Unions and party members, but also their supporters, who believed Labour would alleviate, not perpetuate their struggles.
I have the feeling that this divisive decision will not only taint Starmer’s time in office but also his legacy.