Labour’s Cold Comfort

Paul Knaggs writes:

Labour’s Winter of Discontent: The Betrayal of Britain’s Pensioners

The mask has slipped, and the true face of Labour’s neoliberal consensus stands revealed.

In the theatre of British politics, where the actors change but the script remains depressingly familiar, we find ourselves witnessing a performance that has been a decade in the making. The Labour Party, once the self-proclaimed champion of the working class and vulnerable, again drops its mask to reveal a face that’s indistinguishable from the Tories.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, in a move that reeks of neoliberal orthodoxy, announced the axing of the £300 Winter Fuel Payment for 10 million pensioners. When she did so she conveniently claimed her decision a result of Tory economic mismanagement.

The party line, parroted dutifully by the mainstream media painting Reeves as some reluctant chancellor, making “incredibly tough choices “that this cut is necessary to fill a £22 billion “black hole” left by the Tories. It’s a convenient fiction, a bogeyman conjured to justify austerity. But let’s be clear: this is a choice, not a necessity.

This is a calculated attack on the elderly, the poor, and the workers. It’s the culmination of a strategy that Reeves herself outlined just over a decade ago when she proudly declared Labour’s intention to be “tougher than the Conservatives” on benefits an aim to fill their part of the neoliberal consensus.

Let us cast our minds back to 2014, when Rachel Reeves, then shadow work and pensions secretary, stood at the dispatch box and declared with all the warmth of a Siberian winter: “We’re the party that will cut the winter fuel allowance.” How prophetic those words have proven to be, though one suspects even Reeves herself might have blushed at the audacity of her recent announcement to axe the £300 Winter Fuel Payment for 10 million pensioners.

This, dear reader, is not a decision born of necessity, as Reeves would have us believe. No, this is the culmination of a political project conceived in the crucible of neoliberalism, nurtured by the right wing of the Labour Party, and now delivered with a flourish that would make even the most hardened Thatcherite nod in approval.

The justification for this act of fiscal cruelty? A £22bn black hole in the nation’s finances, we’re told. How convenient that this void in our accounts aligns so neatly with Labour’s long-held desire to pare back the welfare state. One might be forgiven for thinking that Reeves has been eyeing this particular piggy bank for years, waiting for the right moment to smash it open, oh wait…

Let us peel back the layers of this fiscal onion, shall we? The irony of this supposed ‘black hole’ is so thick one could cut it with a knife. This £21.9bn figure, trumpeted by the Treasury mere weeks after Labour’s ascension to power, is less a hole and more a mirror reflecting Labour’s own spending choices.

Consider, if you will, the £9 billion Labour has generously bestowed upon public sector pay rises. A laudable aim, perhaps, but one that sits uncomfortably alongside the decision to leave pensioners shivering in their homes, especially when we know a sovereign nation that issues its own currency could afford both. And let us not forget the £3 billion pledged to Ukraine, a commitment made with the casual air of one ordering a round at the local pub. “For however long it takes,” they say – a euphemism for ‘forever’ if ever I heard one.

Meanwhile, the money printer hums merrily along, churning out cash for arms dealers and Bankers alike. our pensioners are left to contemplate whether to heat or eat.

This isn’t a black hole. It’s a black mirror, reflecting the warped priorities of a Labour Party that’s lost its way. They’ve traded the warmth of solidarity for the cold comfort of neoliberal orthodoxy. And in doing so, they’ve left our most vulnerable out in the cold – literally.

Injustice of Stopping Universal Winter Fuel Payments

Ten years ago, Reeves wrote, with all the compassion of a spreadsheet: “We will vote for a cap on welfare spending to keep the overall costs of social security under control.” How chilling those words seem now, as millions of pensioners face the prospect of shivering through winter, their radiators as cold as Labour’s heart.

But let us not forget Reeves’ crowning achievement in doublespeak: “We’re not the party to represent those who are out of work,” she proudly declared in 2015. One wonders if she now considers pensioners, those who have toiled for decades and earned their rest, as part of this undesirable demographic.

But pensioners aren’t the only targets. Reeves’ past comments about not wanting to represent people out of work, her plans to slash food banks, her desire to be “tougher” on benefits – all of these paint a picture of a party that has abandoned its roots in favour of a pale imitation of Thatcherism.

In 2015 reeves wrote:

“The OBR shows that under the Tories that’s getting worse – spending on tax credits over the next parliament will be more than £1bn higher than ministers were predicting six months ago. Housing benefit paid to people in work is also rising sharply. 

“Just as George Osborne’s budget did nothing to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, it does nothing to help bring down the cost of welfare. Labour has set out how we would make fairer choices on welfare spending, including scrapping winter fuel payments for the richest 5% of pensioners and abolishing the bedroom tax, which is not only cruel and unfair but risks costing more than it saves. We would get a grip on the Tories’ failing programmes, such as universal credit.”

These are the things this Labour government wish to tackle while giving a pass to big business and ignoring the rising inequality that is eating at Britain like a canker.

Labour Austerity

Today as we watch our pensioners being sacrificed on the altar of fiscal responsibility, we must ask ourselves: what kind of society are we becoming? One where the measure of a government’s success is not the warmth of its citizens’ homes, but the coldness of its economic calculations?

This is the great bait-and-switch of modern British politics. Two parties, ostensibly opposed, but in reality two sides of the same neoliberal coin. Both bowing at the altar of globalisation and corporate interests, while the people they claim to serve shiver in the cold.

Wake up, Britain. This is not a natural disaster, an act of God, or an unavoidable consequence of global events. This is a choice – a choice made by Reeves and her ilk a decade ago, and now being inflicted upon the most vulnerable in our society.

The erosion of our social fabric is not an accident; it’s by design. And if we do not stand against it now, we may find ourselves in a Britain where the only warmth left is the dying embers of what was once a compassionate society.

This government, not even out of its honeymoon period, is already lying to the public with the practised ease. They have a plan it’s just not the one they were elected on. They refuse to take responsibility for their actions, preferring instead to point fingers at imaginary fiscal bogeymen. If this is how they behave in the first flush of power, one shudders to think what the next five years hold for us – a people destined, it seems, to go cold, hungry, and betrayed.

Labour manifesto Westminster is riddled with decay and infested by a bankrupt ideology that sees the elderly as easy pickings. It’s the same worldview that led Reeves to declare in 2015 that Labour “is not the Party of people on benefits, the fact is there are millions of working people now claiming some form of benefit just to get by” So much for solidarity!

The bitter irony is that while Reeves tightens the screws on pensioners, energy companies are set to raise bills by £500 annually. It’s a grim reminder of who really calls the tune in our so-called democracy.

Make no mistake: this is not a response to a crisis. This is the establishment resetting its course, doubling down on an ideology that has failed the majority while enriching the few. It’s a testament to the narrow vision of our political class, who see people not as citizens to serve, but as inconveniences to manage.

So, as we face another winter of discontent, remember this: the chill you feel isn’t just from the lack of heating. It’s the cold reality of a Labour Party that has abandoned its principles in pursuit of power. And for what? To become indistinguishable from the very party they claim to oppose.

The question now is: how long will we continue to play our part in this farce? How many winters must pass before we demand real change, not just a change of the actors on the political stage?

Remember: this was always the plan. Reeves and her ilk have been laying this groundwork for a decade. The only surprise is that anyone’s surprised at all.