No 10 rules out reversing cuts to winter fuel payments
Downing Street has ruled out reversing the cuts to winter fuel payments.
After the Guardian reported last night that ministers are considering a review of the policy, which was frequently cited by people as a reason not to vote Labour in last week’s local elections, the government just said no “formal” review of the policy was underway. And this morning, giving interviews on behalf of the government, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, pointedly sidestepped questions about whether a rethink was possible. (See 8.41am.)
But since then the government machine has firmed up its line because at the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said the policy would not change.
Asked if the policy was likely to change, the spokesperson said:
The government has set out his position on means testing winter fuel [payments]. It was was a difficult decision, but it was one that the government had to take to repair our public finances and stabilise the economy.
The government’s priority is ensuring that pensioners receive the financial support they deserve, with millions set to see their state pension rise by over £1,900 pounds over the course of this parliament through our commitments to the triple lock.
And beyond that, we’ve actually boosted the pension credit campaign. We’ve seen over 105,000 extra applications on the previous year. We’ve extended the household support fund with over £400m to ensure local authorities can support vulnerable people and families, which itself ensures around 1.3 million households in England and Wales will continue to receive up to £300 pounds in which fuel payments.
And, beyond that, we’ve announced previous plans to extend the warm homes discount.
Asked if this meant that the policy will not change, the spokesperson said:
The policy is set out. There will not be a change to the government’s policy. We set out the difficult decision. It was one that we had to take to bring about economic stability, repair the public finances following the £22bn black hole left by the previous government.
Key events
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No 10 says Starmer ‘won’t be blown off course’ by election defeats, arguing Labour mayoral wins show ‘delivery’ rewarded
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No 10 declines to hit back after Trump proposes 100% tariff on non-US films
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No 10 rules out reversing cuts to winter fuel payments
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Planning bill reforms will boost economy by up to £7.5bn, government impact assessment says
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Progressive parties will lose if they are just ‘managers of status quo’ and it’s not working for voters, says Tony Blair
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Tory MPs ‘deluded’ if they think another leadership contest a good idea, says Iain Duncan Smith
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Disability benefit cuts could hit Wales six times as hard in some areas as England, first minister Eluned Morgan says
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Ex-Runcorn MP Mike Amesbury urges Labour backbenchers to oppose welfare cuts
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Leftwingers say Labour needs to fully reverse winter fuel payment cuts, not just soften them, to win back voters
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Reform accused of hypocrisy after advertising home working jobs
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£102m GP surgery refurbishment programme in England will allow 8m more appointments per year, Streeting says
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Streeting urges resident doctors to hold off on strike ballot, saying they will get ‘good pay offer’
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Streeting says Labour ministers know, if they don’t deliver change, they will be voted out
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Wes Streeting declines to rule out winter fuel payments rethink after Labour losses in local elections
The Commons starts sitting today at 2.30pm (not 11.30am, as the agenda said earlier), because it was not sitting yesterday. After health questions, there will be three ministerial statements after 3.30pm: Dan Jarvis, the security minister, on the counter-terrorism arrests; Douglas Alexander, the trade minister, on trade; and Hamish Falconer, the Foreign Office minister, on Israel and Gaza.
No 10 says Starmer ‘won’t be blown off course’ by election defeats, arguing Labour mayoral wins show ‘delivery’ rewarded
Downing Street has said that the victory of Labour candidates in three mayoral elections last week shows “the importance of delivery” and that, when leaders deliver change, that restores voters’ faith in politics.
At the No 10 lobby briefing, the PM’s press secretary delivered the assessment as he briefed journalists on Keir Starmer’s assessment of the lessons from last week’s elections.
Mostly lobby briefings are conducted by the PM’s spokesperson, a civil servant who does not talk on party political matters. But Starmer chaired a political cabinet this morning, and the press secretary was present to give a political viewpoint.
He said losing the Runcorn and Helsby byelection was “disappointing”. And he said that, while the overall results “can’t blind us to the public’s impatience to change”, the Labour victories in three mayoral elections – in North Tyneside, Doncaster and the West of England – showed that politicians would be rewarded for implementing change.
He said:
There are a lot of opportunities here. Look at where we won last week – West of England, Doncaster, North Tyneside, it shows the importance of delivery, and that when people see … government is delivering, it restores their faith and politics as a force for good.
The press secretary said the government would not be “blown off course”.
We were elected as a stable and serious party after 14 years of chaos and decline …
We won’t be blown off course and it’s that mindset and focus that has allowed us to make the progress we have.
He said people voted for change in July last year and he mentioned a series of government policies announced recently that he said were delivering this, including: rolling out the the NHS app; freezing prescription charges; preventing sex offenders from claiming asylum; speeding up cancer diagnosis in the NHS; refurbishing GPs’ surgeries; and giving victims more rights.
The press secretarty said that there were “encouraging signs” that the government’s Plan for Change is working. He said interest rates have been cut three times since the election, wages are rising and waiting lists are down.
And he said further “major announcements” are coming in the next few weeks, including the spending review, the strategic defence review, infrastructure, industrial and housing strategies, and the legal migration white paper.
No 10 declines to hit back after Trump proposes 100% tariff on non-US films
Downing Street has declined to comment on Donald Trump’s plan to impose 100% tariffs on non-US films – beyond saying that the introduction of new tariffs generally has been “disappointing”.
Asked about the proposed tariffs on films, the PM’s spokesperson said:
Talks are ongoing with the US on an economic deal, so we are not going to get into a running commentary of the details on that.
As we have said across the board, any introduction of tariffs will be disappointing but we will always take a calm and steady approach to our discussions with the US to put British interests first.
The spokesperson went on to describe the British film industry as “a world-class industry” and “a beacon of talent” that “showcases the best of our creativity and culture”.
No 10 rules out reversing cuts to winter fuel payments
Downing Street has ruled out reversing the cuts to winter fuel payments.
After the Guardian reported last night that ministers are considering a review of the policy, which was frequently cited by people as a reason not to vote Labour in last week’s local elections, the government just said no “formal” review of the policy was underway. And this morning, giving interviews on behalf of the government, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, pointedly sidestepped questions about whether a rethink was possible. (See 8.41am.)
But since then the government machine has firmed up its line because at the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said the policy would not change.
Asked if the policy was likely to change, the spokesperson said:
The government has set out his position on means testing winter fuel [payments]. It was was a difficult decision, but it was one that the government had to take to repair our public finances and stabilise the economy.
The government’s priority is ensuring that pensioners receive the financial support they deserve, with millions set to see their state pension rise by over £1,900 pounds over the course of this parliament through our commitments to the triple lock.
And beyond that, we’ve actually boosted the pension credit campaign. We’ve seen over 105,000 extra applications on the previous year. We’ve extended the household support fund with over £400m to ensure local authorities can support vulnerable people and families, which itself ensures around 1.3 million households in England and Wales will continue to receive up to £300 pounds in which fuel payments.
And, beyond that, we’ve announced previous plans to extend the warm homes discount.
Asked if this meant that the policy will not change, the spokesperson said:
The policy is set out. There will not be a change to the government’s policy. We set out the difficult decision. It was one that we had to take to bring about economic stability, repair the public finances following the £22bn black hole left by the previous government.
Planning bill reforms will boost economy by up to £7.5bn, government impact assessment says
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has today published the impact assessment for its planning and infrastructure bill. It says, over 10 years, the measures in the bill could boost the economy by up to £7.5bn – in addition to bringing other benefits that cannot be quantified in cash terms.
The document runs to 500 pages, but, from the government’s point of view, here is the key extract.
Over the ten year appraisal period, the overall positive impact estimated on society is equivalent to £3.2bn, with a potential high range of up to £7.5bn. We expect this to significantly understate the impact of the combined measures in this bill as there will be wider, un-monetised benefits such as the benefit to society from the quicker delivery of housing and infrastructure, and the macroeconomic contribution of increased development supported by the bill.
In its report published at the time of the budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility also said the planning reforms would boost the economy. It said they raise GDP by 0.2% by 2029/30 – which would be worth around £6.8bn.
In a news release MHCLG said the impact assessment published today did not take account of proposed changes to the bill that would make it even more pro-growth. It said:
The current assessment also does not account for recent amendments to the bill to overhaul the pre-application stage for critical infrastructure, which government analysis suggests will add another £1 billion over this parliament.
Progressive parties will lose if they are just ‘managers of status quo’ and it’s not working for voters, says Tony Blair
In his interviews this morning Wes Streeting, who is seen as a Blairite, said that if the Labour government did not deliver change for voters, it would be out. (See 9.08am.) According to Politico, at a conference in Los Angeles yesterday, Tony Blair made the same argument himself. Talking about progressive parties generally, he said.
If you end up just being the managers of the status quo and the status quo isn’t working for people, they’re going to put you out.
Tory MPs ‘deluded’ if they think another leadership contest a good idea, says Iain Duncan Smith
According to a report by David Maddox for the Independent, some Tory MPs want to open talks on replacing Kemi Badenoch as leader. Maddox says:
Two senior backbenchers have confirmed to The Independent that they are calling meetings with fellow parliamentarians to discuss ousting the Conservative Party leader.
“We cannot continue as we are and she [Ms Badenoch] is just not up to the task,” one of the MPs said …
Critics of Ms Badenoch in the parliamentary party have spoken of their frustration over a lack of a strategy to deal with Reform.
In particular an attempt to get her support for an anti-Reform attack unit, with the help of former allies of Mr Farage from Ukip and the Brexit Party who have joined the Tories, fell on deaf ears despite support from grandee Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash.
One senior backbencher said: “I feel like I have been banging my head against a brick wall trying to find out what the strategy is to take on Farage and Reform. There has been nothing.”
But many in the party regard talk of ousting Badenoch now as premature, not least because Badenoch was only elected leader in November last year, and Tory leadership election rules do not allow a challenge until she has been in post a year. For a no-confidence vote to take place, 41 Conservative MPs (a third of the total) would have to request one.
In a post on social media last night, Iain Duncan Smith, whose own leadership of the party was ended after two years by a no confidence vote, said any colleagues thinking a leadership contest would be a good idea were “deluded”.
To those few @Conservatives now briefing journalists that another leadership election is the answer I say, if after four leadership elections and utter disarray amongst MP’s over the last five years, another leadership election is what they believe the public voted for, then they are deluded.
This election result was frankly the second signific tremor after the first devastating political earthquake last year. It underscored the level of anger too many Conservative voters still had for our mistakes and failures. Not to mention the terrible behaviour of too many Conservative MPs at times appearing to care more for their careers than the lives of those they were sent to serve.Conservative voters haven’t forgotten.
Robert Jenrick, shadow justice secretary and runner up in the last contest, is seen as the favourite to replace Badenoch. But this morning More in Common released polling suggesting that, with Jenrick as leader, the Tories would do marginally worse.
Disability benefit cuts could hit Wales six times as hard in some areas as England, first minister Eluned Morgan says
In March Eluned Morgan, the Welsh first minister, was criticised after a Senedd committee hearing where she dodged questions about whether or not she supported the UK government’s proposed cuts to sickness and disability benefits.
Today she was more explicit, using a speech to say she had serious concerns about the cuts, as well as calling for the cuts to winter fuel payments to be reversed.
But she also insisted that this was not a Labour “split” – just “grown-up government”, with the Welsh government and the UK government in Westminster acknowledging that on some matters they don’t agree.
On the proposed cuts to Pip (the personal independence payment) and other benefits for the sick or disabled, she said the UK government plans were “causing serious concern [in Wales] where we have a higher number of people dependent on disability benefits than elsewhere”.
She went on:
In some of our former coalfield communities, over 40% of working-age adults are in receipt of disability benefits. We know that disability cuts are likely to hit Wales more than six times more, proportionally, in some areas in Wales compared to England.
She called on the UK government to look at the approach being adopted in Wales to get people into work.
In Wales, we believe in an opportunity welfare state, one that supports people to move forward when they can and stands beside them when they can’t. But partnership in power should work both ways.
We ask the UK government, come and take a look at our alternative approach to supporting people into work in Wales, where the system has already proven its worth because our young person’s guarantee scheme ensures that every young person has the offer of education, training or employment.
And on winter fuel payments, she said:
To be honest, though, it hasn’t all been popular. The cut in winter fuel allowance is something that comes up time and again, and I hope the UK Government will rethink this policy.
The Welsh government has always been led by Labour since devolution started in 1999. Some first ministers have been happy to advertise their differences with the party’s leadership in London. But Morgan has been more hesitant about rocking the boat, and in her speech she stressed that her policy comments were not her being disloyal.
In a Gavin And Stacey reference, she said: “There will be times when what’s right for Essex is not right for Barry.”
And she went on:
We know that splits and spats make for easy news, but this isn’t drama. This is honesty, this is responsibility. This is what leadership looks like.
So when we disagree, we will say it. When we see unfairness, we’ll stand up for it.
When Westminster makes decisions that we think will harm the Welsh communities, we will not stay silent.
This is not a split. This is grown up, modern government. This is not disloyalty. This is patriotic responsibility.
Ex-Runcorn MP Mike Amesbury urges Labour backbenchers to oppose welfare cuts
And it is not just Labour leftwingers who are calling for a full U-turn over winter fuel payments and cuts to sickness and disability benefits. As Jessica Elgot reports, the former MP Mike Amesbury, who triggered the byelection in Runcorn and Helsby when he resigned after his assualt conviction, told the Today programme this morning that these decisions were mistakes. Amesbury said:
Reform have been the beneficiaries really of some big political mistakes from the Labour government, and I sincerely hope that Keir [Starmer], the Labour prime minister, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, not only listen, but learn.
Constituents in Durham or elsewhere up and down the country didn’t vote that way because of my mistake. I live that moment every day of my life … if I could turn back the clock and change things, I’d have done the right thing and walked away.
I’ve paid a price, and I’ll learn from those mistakes, and politically, I want this government to succeed. But if they carry on making political mistakes, winter fuel’s an obvious one but coming down the line is the personal independence payments.”
[Labour MPs should] say, ‘Look, come on now’ to the leadership. ‘Just think again on this. If we’re serious about having two terms in the Labour government transforming this country for the better we’ve got to listen to the electorate, do the right thing.’
Leftwingers say Labour needs to fully reverse winter fuel payment cuts, not just soften them, to win back voters
Ayesha Hazarika, who worked as a Labour aide for Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband and who is now a broadcaster, has welcomed the Guardian’s report saying Downing Street may rethink the winter fuel payment cut. She posted this on social media.
Very much hope this is true. The timing of this winter fuel policy, the way it was announced & the way it was designed has caused so much anger & political damage the length & breadth of the country. If the govt wanted to show it was listening, this would be a good start.
But leftwingers think just tweaking the policy would not be enough. This is from John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor who is suspended from the parliamentary Labour party for voting with the SNP and against the government last year in favour of abolishing the two-child benefit cap.
If Labour decision makers think “reviewing” Winter Fuel Allowance will save them, they’re not living in same world as rest of us. Only scrapping of WFA cut & dropping completely plans to cut benefits to disabled will show that as PM claimed, “he gets it.”
This is from Apsana Begum, who is also suspended from the PLP, over the same rebel vote on the two-child benefit cap.
Standing up for communities put most at risk by 14 years of austerity — the elderly and disabled — should be the priority.
Reviewing the Winter Fuel Allowance cut will not deliver the change promised.
It must be reversed, along with dropping plans to cuts benefits.
This is from Zarah Sultana, who is also technically an independent MP because she was suspended over the same rebel vote last year.
The Labour government was wrong to cut winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners last September — and it’s still wrong now.
I voted against it then. It must be *fully* reversed now.
This isn’t difficult.
And this is from Rosie Duffield, who resigned from the Labour party last year, commenting on a tweet referencing a headline on the Guardian’s story. When Duffield resigned, she cited the decisions to cut winter fuel payments, but to keep the two-child benefit cap, as key reasons for quitting, although her disagreement with Labour over trans policy was also a major factor.
‘In response to local elections’….
(And not because it was morally wrong to cut the Winter Fuel Allowance in the first place).
Reform accused of hypocrisy after advertising home working jobs
Reform UK has been accused of hypocrisy after it emerged the party is advertising several jobs offering home working despite promising a clampdown on the policy, Jamie Grierson reports.
£102m GP surgery refurbishment programme in England will allow 8m more appointments per year, Streeting says
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, was ostensibly doing a media round this morning to promote a government announcement about £102m being invested in England to modernise 1,000 GP surgeries. This will allow GPs to deliver 8m more appointments a year, he claimed.
Speaking on the Today programme, Streeting said the government had already reformed the GP contract, increased their pay and hired more doctors. But now it was responding to their requests for more space in practices, he said.
Explaining why the upgrades would lead to more appointments, the Department of Health and Social Care said in its news release:
Right now, many GP surgeries could be seeing more patients, but don’t have enough room or the right facilities to accommodate them. From creating new consultation and treatment rooms to making better use of existing space, these quick fixes will help patients across the country be seen faster …
This is the first national capital fund for primary care estates since 2020 and part of a comprehensive package of GP support, alongside recruiting 1,500 additional GPs and reducing bureaucracy.
Announcements like this normally involve fleshing out spending decisions already in the pipeline and, in their London Playbook briefing for Politico, Stefan Boscia and Bethany Dawson say this one started life as a proposal to refurbish 200 surgeries.
Playbook notices the policy was first announced at the budget and that the funding was initially supposed to cover refurbs for 200 GP surgeries. A government official said the decision was made to instead spread the money around to more GP surgeries after consulting with the sector. “Instead of fewer large-scale renovations, we identified opportunities for targeted ‘quick fix’ improvements that can be implemented rapidly across more locations,” they said.
Streeting urges resident doctors to hold off on strike ballot, saying they will get ‘good pay offer’
On Friday the British Medical Association announced that resident doctors (the non-consultant hospital doctors who used to be called junior doctors) will be balloted on strike action over pay.
Speaking to the Today programme, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said his message to the BMA was that they should “hold your horses” and wait and see what their pay offer would be. He said:
I think it will be a good pay offer, and I think it will be, once again, further proof for resident doctors, after the years of trust being battered, after a very bad relationship with the previous government, that they finally have a Labour government that believes in the NHS, that wants to invest in, reform and modernise the NHS and wants to work in partnership, not just with resident doctors, but with nurses, the whole range of NHS staff.
Streeting said the government was not just supportive of resident doctors on pay. He said he was also “sympathetic” to them on working conditions, and “the lack of career progression” they were experiencing.
Streeting says Labour ministers know, if they don’t deliver change, they will be voted out
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said in his interviews this morning that ministers knew that, if they failed to deliver change, they would be voted out.
This is what he told LBC (although he said almost exactly the same thing in most of his interviews).
In government, we’re genuinely impatient for change. We are going hard at the challenges that the public has set for us.
And we’re under no illusion – and I think the voters have sent us a fundamental message ‘we voted for change with Labour last year, if you don’t deliver change, if we’re not feeling it, we’ll vote for change elsewhere’.
So we’ve got that message loud and clear. We take the results on the chin.
Streeting also argued that it was reasonable for the government to say it needed more time to deliver change, stressing that it has been in office for less than a year. He told the Today programme:
All that people care about is the results. At the next general election, the question will be really simple for people – is our country better today than it was when the this government was elected? Am I feeling better off in my pocket? Is our NHS performing better? Is it there for me when I need it? Do my kids go to good schools? Are my streets safe? Have they talked about the borders?
Those are the practical things that people care about and, on every single one of those fronts, we can point to progress, we can point to improvement.
Is the job done? Of course, it isn’t. We’ve not even been in a year yet.
Wes Streeting declines to rule out winter fuel payments rethink after Labour losses in local elections
Good morning. Parliament is back after the bank holiday weekend, and in the Commons the main items on the agenda is a general debate on the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ day. But of course MPs will be preoccupied with the repercussions of the local elections in England, which were won by Reform UK in a victory so overwhelming it could reshape UK politics.
On Friday Keir Starmer responded to the results by saying the government needed to go “further and faster” – implying there was nothing wrong with its policy direction, just the pace at which change is happening.
But, as Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report in the Guardian this morning, in reality Downing Street is mulling over the possible need for policy change, and there is talk of revising the winter fuel payment cut.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is doing the morning interview round for No 10 this morning (no surprise there – is he ever not doing it?) and, although he has been given multiple opportunities to knock down this story, he has conspicuously failed to do so.
On BBC Breafast, asked by the presenter John Kay if there might be a change to the winter fuel payments policy in the next few weeks or months, Streeting replied:
Well, at this stage, ahead of a spending review or budget where those sorts of decisions are normally taken, I wouldn’t be close to those sorts of discussions as health secretary.
But I’m not going to insult your viewers, by the way, by pretending that winter fuel didn’t come up on the doorstep. Of course it did, and I know that people aren’t happy about winter fuel allowance in lots of cases.
On the Today programme, asked by Justin Webb if he could rule out the winter fuel payments policy being reconsidered, Streeting said:
There isn’t a formal review or anything like that going on. I do know that.
But, if this was the No 10 rebuttal, Streeting did not try very hard to make anyone think that it means the Guardian story is wrong. Streeting also repeated the point about how, if the policy was being reviewed, he would not have been told about it anyway. And he went on:
We are reflecting on what the voters told us last Thursday at the ballot box, and that is why the prime minister said over the weekend he wants the government to go further and faster at delivering real change.
Asked if he would advise Starmer that the winter fuel policy should change, Streeting said he would give his advice to the PM in private. (He did not say he would tell Starmer to stick with the policy.)
I will post more from Streeting’s interviews, and other reaction to the Guardian story, shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.15am: Eluned Morgan, Welsh first minister, gives a speech criticising the UK government’s proposed cuts to sickness and disability benefits.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs a normal cabinet meeting, followed by a political cabinet.
10am: More in Common releases its analysis of the local election results, which includes new polling that helps to explain the results.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in London.
2.30pm: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
2.30pm: Sarah Pochin, the new Reform UK MP for Runcorn and Helsby, is expected to take her seat.
2.30pm: Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of Ofcom, and Lord Grade, its chair, give evidence to the Commons culture committee.
2.30pm: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, gives a statement to MSPs about plans to improve access to GPs in Scotland.
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