The British trade union UNITE, which brings together more than a million members – most of them belonging to the left wing of the Labour Party – has dealt a severe blow to the image of unity sought by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In the final hours of the Labour congress held in Liverpool, a non-binding motion was passed by the trade union centre attacking the cuts in social benefits of the new Government.
In mid-August, Starmer gave the green light to the decision of his finance minister, Rachel Reeves, to remove universal aid on the gas and electricity bills of UK pensioners. The government accused its predecessors in Downing Street, the Conservatives, of having left an extra budgetary hole of more than 26 billion euros. One of the decisions taken in response to this unforeseen event has injected controversy into the heart of the Labour Party and into its leadership’s relationship with the unions.
Reeves eliminated with a stroke of a pen the benefits received by 10 million pensioners, which ranged from 240 to 360 euros per year. He only maintained them for those who were in a vulnerable economic situation, approximately 1.1 million.
The decision has angered many Labour MPs and local councillors, who have seen their inboxes flooded with protest letters from their constituents. Despite calls for the government to reconsider its stance, neither Reeves nor Starmer have budged. “I know you are concerned about the decision we have taken, but if the path was popular or easy, we would have already taken it,” the prime minister told delegates at the congress on Tuesday.
The party leadership was aware that it would lose the vote on the motion tabled by UNITE, and manoeuvred, in the face of protests from many of those attending the meeting, to have it debated at the end of the congress. Starmer had given the final touch with his speech on Tuesday. By Wednesday, many of the delegates had already left Liverpool and made their way back home.
And yet the debate has been heated. “People just don’t get it. I don’t get it myself. How can the new Labour government have cut energy benefits for pensioners and still not touched the super-rich? The public didn’t vote for them to do this. It’s the wrong decision and it needs to be reversed,” Sharon Graham, UNITE’s general secretary, proclaimed to applause from the podium at Liverpool Convention Centre.
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The motion, which is not binding on Starmer’s government, was approved in a show of hands vote, which gave the proponents a victory that was somewhat narrower than expected, but a victory nonetheless.
The latest survey of the company YouGovindicates that 46% of Britons support a selective, rather than universal, system of aid for pensioners, compared to 44% who are against the decision.
The focus of the protest is on pensioners who, without reaching the poverty line that entitles them to benefits, have lost a subsidy that allowed them to get through the winter with less hardship. A member of the Labour Party who took part in the debate before the vote tried to defend Starmer’s decision from personal experience. “Every year I receive an income of 200 pounds (about 240 euros) in my bank account, and I put it in a food bank,” she said, indicating that, like her, there are many pensioners who do not need this help.
But the issue of energy subsidies for pensioners – a measure that was put in place by Gordon Brown’s Labour government a quarter of a century ago and has been maintained by Conservative governments – has become a burden for Starmer. It is also difficult to justify after the scandal of the free suits and tickets to football and other events that both the Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet have admitted they had received.
Starmer and Reeves have championed fiscal rigour and the need to balance the books in order to attract the average voter and not scare off businessmen. After 14 years of Conservative governments that have left the UK economy in a terrible state – austerity, Brexit, the collapse of the stock market and the pound under Liz Truss – the new Downing Street team wants to present itself to citizens as responsible and prudent. The unions’ motion, however, included among its requests, in addition to the revocation of the cut in aid, greater tax pressure on millionaires, and a review of the fiscal rules, so that the Government has more opportunity to borrow to invest in public services in a dire state.
