UK: Labour Government Cuts Winter Fuel Allowance for Pensioners
By Laurence Humphries, RCIT Britain, 12th October 2024
After the election of a new Labour Government in May, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that tough times lay ahead for the working class and the oppressed in Britain. In fact, the government decided to attack the pensioners and make them pay for the crisis.
“Millions of pensioners are set to lose winter fuel payments this year after an attempt to block the cuts failed in Parliament. The government won a vote on the plan to restrict the payments to all but the poorest pensioners by 348 votes to 228 - a majority of 120. Fifty-two Labour MPs did not take part in the vote, including seven ministers, but it is not clear how many deliberately abstained or were absent from Parliament for another reason. Only one Labour MP, Jon Trickett, voted against the government, on what he said could "be a matter of life and death" for his constituents”. [1]
This is the first of many attacks that this pro-capitalist government is going to make as Britain’s economy is in deep crisis. Many working-class families had voted for Labour because they were hoping for a basic redistribution of wealth. But all they receive is continued attacks on their living standards as the Starmer government makes the reduction of public debt on the back of the masses its priority.
“The government has seen off a potential major backbench rebellion sparked by a row over cuts to winter fuel payment. Speculation had mounted this week that dozens of MPs could abstain or rebel, but Chancellor Rachel Reeves urged colleagues to toe the line last night, telling a Parliamentary Labour Party meeting: “We stand, we lead and we govern together. Reeves said: “I understand the decision that this government have made on winter fuel is a difficult decision. I’m not immune to the arguments that many in this room have made. “Why are we having to make these savings? It’s not because we plan to, not because we wanted to, because there’s a 22 billion pounds black hole in the public finances because of the mess created by the previous government” [2]
The consequences for the masses will be devastating. Many pensioners face an extreme winter where they often will not be able to use their cooker and eat hot meals or warm their houses or flats. “Pensioner Caroline says others are “much worse off than me”. But she still won’t be able to keep warm in her own home—or use her oven—this winter. Caroline, who lives in Bradford in West Yorkshire, is one of the ten million pensioners who’ve had their winter fuel payments snatched by Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer.” [3]
At the same time the regulator for energy has allowed the utility companies to push the price of gas and electricity to an astronomical height making the majority of people go through hell this winter as many will be freezing because of high prices. Fuel poverty amongst the poor in Britain remains very high this winter. Keir Starmer and his government could have acted and forced the regulator to lower prices instead of increasing them but instead he allowed the market to do its job, further evidence of their bourgeois character.
Keir Starmer has argued that by cutting the fuel allowance he will make a saving and be able to protect the triple lock and pay the pensioners the new increased state pension next April. (The so-called triple lock in Britain guarantees the state pension will not lose value in real terms. Every year, the state pension increases by the highest out of average earnings, inflation or 2.5%. Ed.) This is of course a fallacy. This is an open austerity government. The reformists, very much like the Blair government previously, are on a path to try and protect the bosses and the bankers.
Symbolic protest by sections of the trade union bureaucracy
The government’s decision has been met by popular outrage. Consequently, sections of the trade union bureaucracy – despite their close links to the reformist government – have reacted by launching a campaign against the cuts. Sharon Graham, leader of Unite, led a concerted attack on the decision and proposes a massive campaign to alter the decision. She argues for a wealth tax to tax the rich and fund the winter allowance.
In this spirit, Graham did put forward an emergency motion at the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool. It was passed with a significant majority of the delegates.
“The motion was put forward by the trade union Unite, which has accused the government of embarking on "austerity mark two". Labour members at the party's conference have voted in favour of a motion calling for ministers to reverse their cut to the winter fuel allowance, in an embarrassing blow to Sir Keir Stammer. While there is nothing binding about the vote, it puts further pressure on the Labour leadership over its controversial decision to take away the benefit from millions of pensioners”. [4]
However, as the vote is not binding it will not affect the decision by the Chancellor to use the hated Tory means test system to deprive millions of pensioners of their rightful allowance. As has happened in Labour governments before, they rarely carry out conference decisions. Tony Blair, a close ally of Starmer, never carried out decisions that affected his cosy relationship with the bankers and bosses during his period as Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007.
The bourgeois character of reformism
History shows us that reformism which is the hallmark of this government continues to aid the bourgeoisie. Traditionally, the Labour party has been based on the trade unions and, in particular, on its bureaucracy as well as the upper stratum of the working class – the labour aristocracy. At the same time, the party leadership has links to the capitalist class.
These relations get strained more and more as capitalism has entered a period of decline, in particular since the slump in 2008. The economy is stagnating, the ecological crisis worsens, and the inter-imperialist rivalry accelerates. Under such conditions, the leadership of Labour – as a loyal servant of the ruling class – is increasingly forced to attack its own wider social basis in the working class.
Many centrists do not understand the contradictory nature of reformism. They either ignore the organically corrupted nature of the labour bureaucracy and aristocracy. Or they refuse to acknowledge that the reformists still have a basis in the working class which can put pressure on them.
We can currently see this in the contradictory manoeuvres of the trade union bureaucracy. The outrage of large sectors of the working class pushes sectors of the bureaucracy to openly oppose Starmer’s cuts in winter allowance. This could force these bureaucrats to organise a struggle against the very government with which they are linked. However, they will do so only under massive pressure of the rank and file and only as much as they are forced to do.
In such a situation, it is crucial for Marxists to apply the united front tactic in order to relate to these layers of workers who support the protests of their trade union leaders. This means to call the unions to organise a serious struggle – from mass demonstrations to strikes and general strikes – against the attacks by the Starmer government without entertaining any illusions that the bureaucrats could wage a consistent battle against the reformist government. Hence, it is crucial to call for independent committees of actions in workplaces and neighbourhoods in order to control the struggle from below.
“By extension, the enduring gain of a correct united front policy is the exposure of the limitations of reformism, petty-bourgeois populism, Islamism, anarchism, syndicalism, centrism, and various bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideologies and programs within the working class, and the eventual replacement of all vacillating and inconsistent leaderships with a revolutionary communist one. Therefore, at every stage, the united front policy should be used to strengthen the revolutionary organization by increasing recruitment and deepening its roots within mass organizations. However, the united front is not exclusively and solely a means to build the revolutionary party. Rather, it is a tactic in the ongoing class struggle which seeks to establish the broadest possible fighting unity for the exploited and oppressed masses regardless of their present political differentiation. The purpose of this unity is to repulse the attacks of the bosses and bourgeois governments and to secure better economic, social and political conditions for the working class and its allies in a way that brings nearer the goal of overthrowing capitalism. In this sense, the united front arises in the first place from the needs of the class struggle. For this very reason, revolutionaries do not simply respond to calls for common action against the class enemy but are the first to initiate the call whenever the class struggle demands united action. [5]
The RCIT in Britain calls on socialists inside in the Labour party and in other leftist and centrist organisations to seriously consider the programme of the RCIT. We put forward the following transitional demands as a way of uniting the whole class in a struggle for power and for a truly socialist society.
* Nationalise the key sectors of the economy under workers’ control without compensation!
* Expropriate the super-rich! Open the employers’ books!
* For an open NHS open to all! No to privatisation – nationalise all private hospitals. Invest in a properly funded health service by taxing the rich. Build more intensive care units and launch a massive recruitment drive for more nurses and doctors.
* No to Islamophobia and racism! For open borders, no to immigration controls or deportation to other countries! Reject the new Labour governments proposals on immigration. For migrants to decide themselves about their clothes, their customs and religion, and the use of their language.
* Call on this Labour government to repeal the 1986 and 2023 Public order acts which are used to attack democratic rights and openly demonstrate without the threat of harassment and intimidation carried out by the police especially in the global Gaza protests.
* Organise mass struggles for higher wages, full employment and democratic rights!
* For a workers government based on popular councils and militias!
Footnotes
1) Winter fuel cuts to go ahead after government wins Commons vote - BBC News
2) Winter fuel payment cuts vote: Live updates as MPs vote down rebels - LabourList
3) Pensioner speaks out over winter fuel allowance cut (socialistworker.co.uk)