POLITICS: MOANING ON MERSEYSIDE OVER ‘CRUEL’ DECISION TO SLASH THE WINTER FUEL PAYMENT

By Bill Heaney

Fewer seats on the buses and trains from Scotland to Labour’s Liverpool annual conference were booked by party members this weekend.

The party is said to be losing members over the Chancellor Rachel Reeves’  decision to slash the Winter Fuel Payment.

Gossip in the Merseyside pubs last night was that loyal Labour members had quit in disgust over the decision to scrap winter fuel payments which penalises low income pensioners, and will leave many of them unable to heat their homes this winter.

He said the “challenging” decision was needed to help plug a £22bn black hole left by the Tories and his MPs voted to push it through last week.

But the decision has caused anxiety among Scottish Labour figures who want bad news kept to a minimum in the run up to the Holyrood election.

One parliamentarian even speculated that members are leaving and worried the decision could see Scottish Labour lose support to Nigel Farage’s right wing Reform.

An insider told Paul Hutcheon, political editor of the Labour supporting Daily Record: “Members are angry and feel let down. Rushing to remove the winter heating payment from pensioners who need it is a terrible mistake. Without a rethink we could see many more loyal members quitting this winter.”

Senior figures also believe Starmer, pictured left, and his team should have communicated the larger rise in the state pension at an earlier stage.

A Scottish Labour spokesperson told Hutcheon: “Scotland needs change – and the people of Scotland are turning to Scottish Labour to deliver it. That’s why Scottish Labour won the election in Scotland and that is why we are ready to take the fight to the SNP in 2026.”

The WFP has been devolved to Holyrood and the SNP Government has said it has no choice but to pass on the cut and means-test the payment.

Speaking to the BBC, Labour MP and Energy Minister Michael Shanks said:  “There’s no doubt at all constituents are angry about this decision. I also have a number of constituents who support the decision, incidentally. But it is fair to say the majority are angry about it.”

He said no Labour MP voted “happily” for the change but insisted it was “necessary” to clean up the financial mess.

Asked if it was a mistake, Shanks said: “I think what we have done is made a really difficult decision for the reasons of fixing the public finances. I don’t think it has been a mistake.”

“Sir Keir Starmer’s honeymoon period must be the shortest of any Prime Minister’s in recent times – and it seems Labour members are now the latest to desert his sinking ship.

“Scotland can only escape the damage of Westminster control with the full powers of independence – and the SNP is the vehicle to deliver that better future for all who choose to live here.”

Green MSP Maggie Chapman: “Many Labour members have waited 14 years to have their party in power, only to see them inflicting the same kind of cruel cuts and austerity as the Tories.

“No wonder some of them are feeling let down and betrayed. The cut to winter fuel payments was not in the Labour manifesto, and yet almost every single one of their MPs backed it.

“This cut will plunge a lot of people and families into totally avoidable fuel poverty and will lead to people dying. It is every bit as heinous as anything that the Tories did. But that it comes on top of more than a decade of Tory cuts and at the hands of a Labour government makes it so much harder to deal with.”