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.
