Many figures in the Labour Party are beginning to list the planned cuts to benefits, and personal independence payment (PIP) in particular, as one of the major causes of Labour’s electoral losses at this week’s elections.  But so far, it seems the leadership is not listening.

According to the BBC, the Labour mayor of Doncaster who held on to her post with a much reduced majority, blamed the means-testing of the winter fuel allowance and the threat to PIP for her losses.

In the same article the BBC claim that they are being approached not just by the usual left wing MPs but also, off the record, by MPs from across Labour making the same points about why Labour is doing so badly.

One MP told the BBC "this is not a verdict on our failure to deliver.

"It is a verdict on what we have delivered. People on the doorsteps are using the word 'betrayal.'

"It's winter fuel. It's fear of Pips, it's a bit of immigration.”

And another long-standing Labour MP said "And it turns out that cutting disability and winter fuel payments comes at a cost – these are not Labour things to do".

In a separate piece, the BBC said a Labour campaigner in the Runcorn by-election told them the government's controversial decisions to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners and disability benefits had affected the result in what had been a safe Labour seat.

"On every door it was the same story - winter fuel and PIP," they said.

Emma Lewell MP, who has represented South Shields for Labour since 2013, said in a post on X:

“Trust matters. If you promise people that you will be focused on serving the public and then do not listen to them, do not expect them to vote for you.

“Withdrawal of winter fuel, denial of compensation for the Waspi women, and proposed disability cuts, have all broken that trust.”

And York Central Labour MP Rachel Maskell told BBC Breakfast: " . . . We’re not any other political party, we were created to serve the needs of people across working areas of our country so that people had a real voice of the kind of change that they wanted to see. . .  So, scrapping these proposals to push disabled people into hardship is an absolutely crucial part of that change, showing that we’re going to be listening to the country and protecting the people at their time of need."

Unfortunately, there is no sign yet that the Labour leadership is getting the message. 

Reacting to the results, Starmer said “I get it, we were elected in to deliver change, we've started that change – waiting lists down, wages up, interests rates down.

"The message I take out of these elections is we need to go further and faster on the change people want to see and that's what I'm determined to do."

Clearly, the cracks in the Labour party are beginning to spread beyond the “usual suspects”, but campaigners will need to go further and faster if they are to convince enough of the backbenches to dare to rebel against an unmoving leadership by June.

Comments

Write comments...
or post as a guest
People in conversation:
Loading comment... The comment will be refreshed after 00:00.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 2 hours ago
    If there was an election tomorrow 
    Starmer 
    They couldn't pour water out of a boot with the instructions on the heel. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 7 hours ago
    You really could not make this up!
    Very well done Camden Disability Action Group
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 7 hours ago
    Starmer is a Tory. Shame on labour MPs going alone with this attack on the old and disabled. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 8 hours ago
    Are they thick or just in denial hoping things calm down .
    Starmer you need to resign & take your horrible cronies with you .
    Betrayal after Betrayal .
    Oaps winter fuel ,Pip & inhumane decisions your making on the disabled & ill that will cause poverty & deaths .
    The economy you have destroyed .
    You need to change your name from Labour to the incompetent Party .
    Bunch of Amateurs !!!!

    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 1 hours ago
      @Jane
      They certainly need to up their game, though to be fair it's not easy when Reform have billionaire-funded right wing media pumping out their propaganda. That alone should give anyone inclined to vote Reform pause for thought: if Reform are really the anti-establishment insurgents they claim to be, why is the billionaire class so happy to give them so much support? If they were really any kind of threat to the establishment's wealth and power would they be getting that kind of support?


    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 3 hours ago
      @tintack This is a huge opportunity for the Lib Dems and Greens, but they don't appear to be grasping it
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 7 hours ago
      @Vic
      " Are they thick or just in denial hoping things calm down ."

      Morgan McSweeney and co are apparently convinced that left wing/progressive voters will return to the Labour fold at the general election regardless of what Labour does in government. If that's what they're banking on I think they're in for a shock. 

      Some of the policies, especially the disability cuts, are so egregious that many of these voters will never vote Labour again. Given how shallow their majority is in terms of vote share they won't need to lose all that much of what was once their core vote in order to lose dozens and maybe even hundreds of seats.

      Mandelson always used to say that Labour didn't need to appeal to people on the left "because they have nowhere else to go". That is no longer true. Many former Labour voters are switching to the Greens, some to the Lib Dems (not exactly my idea of a progressive party, but currently probably still less right wing than Labour), and of course we've seen what's happened over the last decade in Scotland with the SNP. True, Labour took back a lot of those Scottish seats last year but I would expect many of them to go back to the SNP next time round as Scottish voters see Labour continuing Tory austerity. Already the SNP looks likely to win next year's Holyrood election having previously looked likely to struggle badly before the 2024 Westminster election.

      At this point there is so little to choose between Labour, the Tories and Reform it's little surprise that left wing voters are looking elsewhere. These three parties may not be identical, but the Tories and Reform are already virtually indistinguishable and Labour seems to be joining in as fast as it can. And surprise surprise, Starmer's reaction to the local election results is to say that it shows the public wants Labour to go further and faster with what it's currently doing, when it's precisely what it's currently doing that is shredding what popularity it had. Expect to see more aping of Reform from Labour, even though the evidence shows that Reform voters will never vote Labour anyway no matter how far right they go and Labour are actually losing far more votes to their left than their right. As I've said before, Labour are not just malevolent, they're also politically incompetent.

       
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 9 hours ago
    I wonder if Starmer will delay the proposed Pip legislation until the Autumn, and possibly later? Starmer and Reeves may be in denial mode publicly, but privately there are to stormy relations with a very large cohort of newly elected backbenchers   I think there MIGHT be some compromise proposals, possibly after the close of the "consultation"
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 hours ago
    “…waiting lists down, wages up, interests rates down”

    Wages up - because of inflation. 
    Interest rate setting - not government controlled. 
    Waiting lists down - really. 

    Couldn’t starmer’s speech writer found a better triplet to illustrate Labour “achievements”.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 hours ago
    This proves that yesterday's vote was not motivated by love for Nigel Farage and his party, as the Reform Party claims, but rather a punitive vote for Keir Starmer and his team by the disabled, the poor, pensioners, and the Labour Party voters. A year ago, Labour was at the height of its historic glory, and in just months we will witness the decline of Labour, just as the Conservatives did, and the end of traditional parties whose lies and broken promises people have grown tired of.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 12 hours ago
    Let’s keep the pressure up. Every drop makes up the ocean. 
We use cookies

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.