PM swings on policies like windsock in a storm… damage from winter fuel fiasco means Labour’s future already looks bleak
THE Labour government has been less than a year in office and yet its authority has already collapsed dramatically.
A mood of desperation hangs over Downing Street as unpopularity mounts.
Bankrupt of credibility, convictions and cash, the Prime Minister swings around wildly like a windsock in a storm.
Indeed, Sir Keir Starmer’s continual changeability on policy is reminiscent of the great line from American comic legend Groucho Marx: “Those are my principles and if you don’t like them I have others.”
Nothing captures Labour’s erratic approach more graphically than the recent decision to reverse the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance for most pensioners.
The axing of this payment — worth £300 a year — was one of the first measures taken by the new Chancellor Rachel Reeves when she arrived at the Treasury last summer.
Poor judgement
Bristling with a stern sense of purpose, she declared that this step was vital to help fill the black hole in the public finances left by spendthrift Tories.
But the facade of toughness was an illusion.
The resolve of the Chancellor and Starmer’s Cabinet did not last long.
In the face of an angry campaign by pensioner groups, followed by a disastrous performance by Labour in last month’s local elections, the Government signalled a headlong retreat, claiming that improved economic conditions now allowed greater flexibility, with the result that the allowance could be restored for all but the most wealthy older people.
But if Sir Keir and his ministers think that they are going to get any credit from this U-turn they are badly mistaken.
On the contrary, the damage caused by this fiasco will be permanent.
There will rightly be no acclaim for a government that showed such poor judgement and had so little determination to stick to its plan.
The practical details remain vague but, wherever the new higher threshold for eligibility is set, there will still be pensioners who will lose out — a sure recipe for resentment and further controversy.
There is also the disturbing factor that HMRC will be in charge of the new arrangements, something that hardly inspires confidence given its record of lost data, low productivity, unresponsiveness and arbitrary assessments.
Perhaps even more important will be the long-term political fallout from this shambles, where ministerial incompetence has been matched by dishonesty.
The great patriotic writer George Orwell once said that “political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
That is a perfect description of Labour’s chaotic, deceitful mismanagement.
Ministers claimed that the withdrawal of the allowance would save £1.5billion a year, so what service are they going to cut or what tax are they going to increase to make up the shortfall?
The public’s contempt for the Government’s shabby manoeuvres was highlighted by polling this week from Lord Ashcroft, the millionaire who runs a number of independent focus groups.
Participants openly laughed at Starmer’s exclamation that the threshold for the allowance could be moved because of the improvement in the economy.
Understandably this group felt the Government was weak and easily buffeted by events. “There’s no thought and no strategic plan. It is like a tombola of ideas,” said one member.
The lesson of modern British history is that when governments lose the trust of the public, they find it almost impossible to regain.
That was true of Edward Heath in the 1970s and John Major in the 1990s, when he described the devaluation of the pound as “fool’s gold,” only to be forced into embracing just this policy on Black Wednesday in 1992.
His landslide defeat in the 1997 General Election was inevitable from that moment.
The future now looks bleak for Labour.
Because the Prime Minister and his Chancellor are so infirm other ministers will be ready to challenge them on spending decisions.
Black fiscal hole
Endless turmoil now seems inevitable, fomented by faction fighting and ministerial ambition.
Already the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who sees herself as the keeper of Labour’s socialist conscience, has emerged as a leader of the internal resistance to further cuts.
The next big battleground will be to fight to end the two-child benefit caps, a sensible measure brought in by the coalition to discourage welfare dependency among parents who could not afford to raise large families.
But in the sentimental struggle that has gripped Labour, this policy is widely seen as an engine of child poverty.
Without strong leadership at the helm, the policy is likely to be ditched, creating yet another burden on the public purse.
The winter fuel farce is an indicator that Labour is now likely to retreat into its traditional, left-wing comfort zone, characterised by more power to the unions, an expansion in state bureaucracy, and big pay awards for public employees.
While spending spirals out of control and taxes have to rise, reform of the welfare system and the low productivity public sector will become impossible.
The Labour Party is in a black fiscal hole of its own making.
It had no real plan for office beyond wishful thinking.
Now we are all paying the price for its folly.