UKAnalysis

A ball of smoke and not much fire as Labour backbench rebellion over winter fuel cut burns out

The row had a little bit for everybody in the audience as Westminster gets back to business

British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks on day three of the Trades Union Congress on Tuesday in Brighton. Photograph: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images
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Mark Paul in London
Tue Sept 10 2024 - 20:00

Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer has easily seen off a backbench rebellion over cuts to winter fuel payments for pensioners, in a row with elements to suit each of the party’s factions.

The rebellion, billed as the biggest Starmer has faced, was in truth never likely to do him much damage as Labour settled into government with the biggest majority since 1997. The government won a parliamentary vote on the measure by 348 to 228, as 53 Labour MPs failed to back the government. But just a single Labour MP voted against it.

The row was over plans revealed six weeks ago by chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves to means-test a once-universal payment of up to £300 (€355) to pensioners to cover the cost of winter fuel. Reeves plans to restrict the payout to £200 for only the least well off who are also in receipt of pension credit. The full £300 will be paid to those aged over 80.

It was designed to save £1.5 billion as part of a suite of cuts Reeves said she needed to help to plug a £22 billion “black hole” she claimed to have found in Britain’s finances after July’s election. Labour’s critics claim much of the fiscal gap was already known.

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The winter fuel payment was perennially on lists of potential spending cuts produced by the Treasury. The Conservatives had also floated means-testing the benefit before the 2017 election, before backing away when then-prime minister Theresa May lost her majority.

Starmer and Reeves, however, took up that cudgel almost as soon as they won power, even though the measure did not appear in the party’s election manifesto weeks before. As a political move, it had a little bit for everybody in the audience.

For Starmer and Reeves, it gave them an early example to underline how disciplined on the public finances the party would be in government; the perfect case study for election slogans that were designed to win the trust of financial markets. Starmer told a union conference in Brighton on Tuesday he “made no apologies for tough decisions”. These were not the words of a leader fighting off a rebellion, but a man getting what he wanted.

For Labour’s socialist, Corbynite wing that has always been suspicious of Starmer, it allowed its MPs to posture about defending vulnerable pensioners, when in reality almost none of them was prepared to take the risk of voting against the party, which could have seen them suspended.

Those who abstained included Diane Abbott and Rose Duffield, who have a history of falling out with their party leader. Jon Trickett, a veteran socialist who was a prominent front bencher under Jeremy Corbyn, was the only Labour MP to actively oppose the measure, in a vote sparked by a Tory motion to reverse it. Trickett said he would “sleep well tonight”.

The winter fuel row was also an early opportunity for the Tory party to relearn the art of parliamentary opposition after 14 years in power.

Hours after the winter fuel vote ended, Tory MPs also held their second round of voting in the party’s leadership contest.

The moderate Mel Stride was eliminated in the vote, which followed Priti Patel’s elimination after the first round, as the harder-edged Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick surged to become the top two. Former home secretary James Cleverly and fellow centrist Tom Tugendhat complete the final four, who will now engage in a beauty parade at the party’s conference in Birmingham in under three weeks.

MPs will then whittle the field down to two, before party members choose the Tory leader who will spend the next five years at least facing Starmer across the House of Commons.