Displaying items by tag: government uturn

Keir Starmer has announced a policy reversal on winter fuel payment cuts, following widespread criticism and internal party dissent. Over 10 million pensioners lost the payment (worth £200 to £300 a year) in 2024 after Labour started to means-test it. The Government originally limited eligibility to those receiving pension credit or income-related benefits, saving an estimated £1.4 billion. However, backlash from charities, unions, and local Labour members, along with poor local election results, prompted a reassessment. In a surprise announcement during Prime Minister’s Questions, Starmer confirmed changes would be introduced in the autumn budget to allow more pensioners to qualify. Details remain unclear, including the revised eligibility threshold or whether changes will apply this winter. Former PM Gordon Brown supported the move, saying 'no pensioner should be forced into poverty.' Critics welcomed the U-turn but called for urgent clarity. With cost-of-living pressures and energy bills rising, many fear delays could leave elderly citizens vulnerable. Age UK urged ministers to ensure the revised policy protects those on low and modest incomes.

The day after the Prime Minister said she was committed to the 45p income tax cut which Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng had announced ten days earlier, he reversed the decision, saying the plans had become a ‘distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing the country’. A few hours later former culture secretary Nadine Dorries accused the Prime Minister of ‘throwing her Chancellor under a bus’, and called for a general election. Having backed Liz Truss for Tory leadership, she now said the PM ‘must take to the country’ if she wants a new mandate, adding that there was ‘widespread dismay’ that much of the work she had done while in office was now on hold. Meanwhile, Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt called for benefits to be increased in line with inflation - a move promised under Boris Johnson's government. Liz Truss has said her priority is ‘growth, growth, growth’ and she will challenge anyone trying to stop it.

About 1.3m children in England will be able to claim free school meal vouchers in the summer holidays, after a campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford. The Manchester United forward, 22, welcomed the six-week voucher for eligible children, saying, ‘Look at what we can do when we come together’. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the move was a ‘welcome u-turn’. Boris Johnson praised Mr Rashford's ‘contribution to the debate around poverty’. During the lockdown the government has been providing vouchers to families whose children qualify for free meals, but had insisted this would not continue outside term time. However, following an open letter by Rashford, who had needed free school meals himself, and a petition signed by 266,000, this decision was reversed.