LONDON (AFP) – UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces an early test of his young premiership on Tuesday when lawmakers vote on a controversial plan to end fuel benefits for millions of pensioners.
The proposed cuts have sparked anger among some MPs within the ruling Labour party and set up the first flashpoint with its union backers since Starmer took office in July.
The furore highlights the challenge facing Britain’s centre-left leader as he tries to fix an economy he says the previous Conservative government broke while also keeping supporters onside.
Labour announced in July that it would means-test the winter fuel allowance, meaning 10 million pensioners will no longer receive help with their energy bills during the colder months.
Starmer says “tough choices” are necessary to help close a GBP22 billion (USD29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances that Labour claims they inherited from the Tories.
“I know they’re unpopular, I know they’re difficult,” he told the BBC in an interview aired on Sunday, defending the axing of the fuel payments for better-off pensioners.
Starmer, a former lawyer, is spending much of his first months in power blaming the Conservatives for a dire economic inheritance and laying the groundwork for possible future tax rises.
Last month he warned that the budget in late October – Labour’s first since it was last in power 14 years ago – would be “painful”.
Starmer has asked Britons to “accept short-term pain for long-term good” but is already coming under pressure to offer the country a less gloomy outlook.
Two major unions have called on him to reverse his government’s decision to scrap the universal winter fuel payments, worth up to GBP300 for some elderly people.
Unite boss Sharon Graham accused Labour of opting to “pick the pocket of pensioners” while leaving the richest “totally untouched”.
Meanwhile, some 17 Labour MPs have signed a motion put forward by one of its newest members to delay implementing the cut.
A spokesperson for Starmer insisted Monday that his top team was united behind the plan and there would be no softening of the proposal.
The government will win Tuesday’s vote easily due to Labour’s whopping 167-seat majority in the House of Commons but a significant rebellion or number of abstentions would pose a headache for Starmer.
He suspended seven of his own MPs in July after they backed a motion demanding the removal of the two-child limit on benefits introduced by the previous Conservative government.
