LONDON, Sep 11 (AP) \u2014 British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced a battle of nerves with his Labour Party on Tuesday, winning a parliamentary vote on a contentious decision to cut a payment that helps millions of pensioners pay winter heating bills \u2014 but not ending unease about it among his lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Starmer says the decision to remove the winter fuel allowance, worth between 200 and 300 pounds ($262 and $393) a year, from all but the poorest retirees is needed because of the dire state of the public finances left by the previous Conservative government.<\/p>\n
But the decision to hit people on fixed incomes in one of the government\u2019s first economic moves since winning a landslide election victory in July has caused disquiet in the center-left Labour Party. Seventeen Labour lawmakers backed a call to postpone the cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cTough decisions are unpopular decisions,\u201d Starmer told his Cabinet on Monday, telling ministers that \u201cwe have to fix the foundations of our economy and that means tough choices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s large House of Commons majority meant the government easily voted down, by a margin of 348-228, an attempt to overturn the cut. Only one Labour lawmaker voted with the opposition, along with several legislators serving suspensions from the party over a previous rebellion. Many Labour MPs backed the move after expressing doubts, while 53 did not vote. Of these, some had authorized absences while others deliberately abstained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my conscience that I cannot vote for these measures,\u201d said one, Rachael Maskell.<\/p>\n
Treasury chief Rachel Reeves on Monday had urged unity, telling lawmakers, \u201cWe stand, we lead and we govern together.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the election campaign, Starmer vowed to get the country\u2019s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.<\/p>\n
Since winning, he has struck a gloomy note, saying there is a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) \u201cblack hole\u201d in the public finances left by the previous government, and warning that \u201cthings will get worse\u201d before they get better.<\/p>\n
The Conservatives accuse Labour of penalizing vulnerable older people. Conservative leadership candidate Mel Stride said the cut would hit \u201cmillions of pensioners \u2026 who are on extremely low incomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cut is expected to reduce the number of pensioners receiving the winter fuel allowance from 11.4 million to 1.5 million. The government argues that pensioners will be better off even with the cut because the state pension, which is indexed to wages and inflation, is due to rise by 460 pounds ($600) next year.<\/p>\n
Starmer is also facing criticism over the early release of more than 1,700 inmates to make space in Britain\u2019s overcrowded prisons. Starting Tuesday, some prisoners are being freed after serving 40% of their sentences, rather than the usual 50%. Inmates convicted of serious violence or sexual offenses are not eligible.<\/p>\n
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the government had no choice because \u201cthe bath was in danger of overflowing, and they either had to turn the taps off or they had to let some water out.\u201d But he warned it was likely some of those freed would go on to commit new crimes.<\/p>\n
Space is needed partly to accommodate scores of people sentenced over anti-immigrant unrest in August. Starmer, a former public prosecutor, has vowed a tough response to the violence in which crowds attacked police, vandalized businesses and attempted to set fire to a hotel housing asylum-seekers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON, Sep 11 (AP) \u2014 British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced a battle of nerves with his Labour Party on Tuesday, winning a parliamentary vote on a contentious decision to cut a payment that helps millions of pensioners pay winter heating bills \u2014 but not ending unease about it among his lawmakers. Starmer says the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-248368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}