The general election seems a lifetime ago. Yet it was just a couple of months ago that Keir Starmer promised a fully costed vision of bright, sunlit uplands of prosperity and an end to cronyism. How hollow those promises must sound to those who face the prospect of losing their winter fuel allowances, or single people potentially losing their single person’s council tax discount, currently under review.
The so-called fiscal black hole was, of course, known about before the election and there will be more to come on Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s alleged misleading of parliament, exposed by her contradictory statements to the House and her signed off Treasury Estimates. But it is extraordinary how a new government can flip their tone so quickly, and paint a picture so bleak it risks ending up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This week, we held a debate on slashing winter fuel allowances from pensioners. Conservatives are against it. Pensioner advocate groups are against it. Even Labour’s paymasters, the UNITE Union is against it. And some Labour MPs, but not enough for our motion to stop it happening passing, were against it.
On the 30th October, we will hear more of the new government’s plans when they hold their first budget. Sir Keir has already prepared us for much more to come, warning that he must be hard because of the legacy he apparently failed to read about in all the available fiscal documentation freely available in our transparent democracy. Of course, he warns the heaviest burden will fall on those with the broadest shoulders, and in principle, that is not unreasonable. Take, for example, VAT on private education. Leaving aside the very long-standing principle that education should not be subject to VAT, I suspect that the 93% of parents who use state education will be relaxed about this. But the private sector expects around 20% of private school places to be lost because parents can’t afford the uplift. So how will parents who use our excellent state sector feel when they can’t get their kids in their first-choice school because places have been taken by displaced private pupils?
Similarly, an 81 year old widow faces a double hit this winter, losing £300 of winter fuel allowance, and getting a hike in her council tax, losing her single person discount. Meanwhile survivors of domestic abuse will be having sleepless nights after their abuser was released early from prison this week
I struggle to see how this government is bringing about economic and social prosperity.