Keir Starmer’s “change” for the worse will be shouldered by working people (Photo: Flickr/ Keir Starmer)
Keir Starmer—the supposed bringer of “change”—made a speech on Tuesday that life in Britain “is going to get worse”. Not just worse, but “worse than we ever imagined”.
In his first keynote speech, which set out the government’s perspective, Starmer posed as a friend of the people by “being honest” about “the choices we face”.
Starmer wants to seem like a responsible adult, who you can trust to fix the “rot set deep in the heart” of the country at the hands of the Tories.
He is vowing to fix the “rubble and ruin” left by successive Tory governments. And, like chancellor Rachel Reeves, he’s claiming that the Conservatives hid the true financial picture. But who will pay for this rot, rubble and ruin?
The speech was billed as “a direct message to the working people across Britain”. It is cover for Labour to not do all the things it said it would—and do what it said it wouldn’t.
Its first budget is due on 30 October, so the government is scrambling to set the scene about how ordinary people will pay the price for capitalist crisis.
That’s evident in its first broken promise in power—that energy bills will decrease.
Instead energy bills are set to increase by 10 percent in the run-up to winter, equivalent to £12 a month.
That’s thanks to Labour allowing the industry regulator to increase the cap on gas and electricity from October.
Under the new price cap, the average dual-fuel energy bill will rise to £1,717 a year, up £149 from its current level of £1,568 in place since July. The cap is set every quarter by Ofgem.
Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley has put the burden on consumers to “shop around” to keep warm this winter.
The regulator revealed the cap after Reeves set out plans to restrict the winter fuel allowance that helps pensioners pay their bills.
This will no longer be universal to those claiming a state pension and only pensioners on means-tested benefits would qualify this winter. Reeves is trying to close up a “black hole” in the public finances she blames on the Tories. But benefits to pensioners should not be up for grabs.
The allowance is worth between £100 and £300 and paid to 11.4 million pensioners in 8.4 million households in 2022-23 in England and Wales.
Now payments worth £200 will be made to households receiving pension credits, or £300 to households on pension credits paid to someone over 80.
Millions of pensioners will face higher energy costs and colder winters as part of a plan to save £22 billion. But this is at the cost of freezing pensions who have to choose between food and heating—and in some cases won’t be able to choose either.
Starmer’s speech this week demonstrates how these vicious cuts are not the end of the attacks, but the beginning.
There needs to be proper resistance every time the government tries to axe jobs, drop benefits and slash services. It is possible to fight off these attacks but it must start now.
The Labour government planned to introduce a state energy company called Great British Energy to lower costs.
It would invest in renewable energy and own, manage and operate clean power projects.
It’s yet to get going. Meanwhile energy secretary Ed Miliband said, “The rise in the price cap is a direct result of the failed energy policy we inherited.
“The only solution to get bills down and greater energy independence is the government’s mission for clean, homegrown power.”
Labour can blame the Tories all it wants, but without regulation on privatised energy bills prices will continue to hike and leave ordinary people with less and less.
And while Labour postures over who to blame, it’s pensioners that will suffer. Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, called it a “cruel decision.”
He said more vulnerable people succumb to health complications from living in cold and damp conditions. He estimates that Labour’s savings will be wiped out by additional strain on the health service.
Age UK said that two million pensioners who need the payments will no longer get them.
Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, described the situation as “reckless and wrong”.
“Means-testing Winter Fuel Payment when fuel prices are rising by 10 percent spells disaster for pensioners on low and modest incomes or living in vulnerable circumstances due to ill health,” she said.
A pension credit is for people on low incomes and unlocks a number of other benefits. It ensures that single people have an income of at least £218.15 a week, and that pensioner couples have at least £332.
For over a decade about a third of pensioners who are entitled have not claimed it. The result will be colder homes and more death.
In 2020/21, 14,502 people died because of cold homes—a huge change from 2,439 the year before. The number of excess deaths was 4,950 last year.
Gillian Cooper, the director of energy at Citizens Advice, said, “One in four say they could be forced to turn off their heating and hot water this winter.
“We’re particularly concerned about households with children and young people and those on lower incomes, who are most likely to struggle with their heating costs.”
And standing charges—a fixed daily amount that covers the costs of connecting to a supply—are staying the same. These are typically 60p a day for electricity and 31p a day for gas.
These charges are unfair because they make up a disproportionately large part of bills for low energy users.
Plus the regulator is adding £28 to everyone’s bill over the year to cover the cost of dealing with £3.1 billion of debt owed to suppliers.
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