British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced a battle of nerves with his Labour Party on Tuesday, winning a parliamentary vote on a contentious decision to cut a payment that helps millions of pensioners pay winter heating bills — but not ending unease about it among his lawmakers.
Starmer says the decision to remove the winter fuel allowance, worth between 200 and 300 pounds ($262 and $393) a year, from all but the poorest retirees is needed because of the dire state of the public finances left by the previous Conservative government.
But the decision to hit people on fixed incomes in one of the government’s first economic moves since winning a landslide election victory in July has caused disquiet in the center-left Labour Party. Seventeen Labour lawmakers backed a call to postpone the cut.
“Tough decisions are unpopular decisions,” Starmer told his Cabinet on Monday, telling ministers that “we have to fix the foundations of our economy and that means tough choices.”
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Labour’s large House of Commons majority meant the government easily voted down, by a margin of 348-228, an attempt to overturn the cut. Only one Labour lawmaker voted with the opposition, along with several legislators serving suspensions from the party over a previous rebellion. Many Labour MPs backed the move after expressing doubts, while 53 did not vote. Of these, some had authorized absences while others deliberately abstained.
“It’s my conscience that I cannot vote for these measures," said one, Rachael Maskell.
Treasury chief Rachel Reeves on Monday had urged unity, telling lawmakers, “We stand, we lead and we govern together.”
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During the election campaign, Starmer vowed to get the country’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.
Since winning, he has struck a gloomy note, saying there is a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances left by the previous government, and warning that “things will get worse” before they get better.
The Conservatives accuse Labour of penalizing vulnerable older people. Conservative leadership candidate Mel Stride said the cut would hit “millions of pensioners … who are on extremely low incomes.”
The cut is expected to reduce the number of pensioners receiving the winter fuel allowance from 11.4 million to 1.5 million. The government argues that pensioners will be better off even with the cut because the state pension, which is indexed to wages and inflation, is due to rise by 460 pounds ($600) next year.
Starmer is also facing criticism over the early release of more than 1,700 inmates to make space in Britain’s overcrowded prisons. Starting Tuesday, some prisoners are being freed after serving 40% of their sentences, rather than the usual 50%. Inmates convicted of serious violence or sexual offenses are not eligible.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the government had no choice because “the bath was in danger of overflowing, and they either had to turn the taps off or they had to let some water out.” But he warned it was likely some of those freed would go on to commit new crimes.
Space is needed partly to accommodate scores of people sentenced over anti-immigrant unrest in August. Starmer, a former public prosecutor, has vowed a tough response to the violence in which crowds attacked police, vandalized businesses and attempted to set fire to a hotel housing asylum-seekers.