Conservative Group Leader on Sefton Council, Mike Prendergast, has strongly criticised the Labour government’s plans to scrap the Winter Fuel Payment for many pensioners and is calling on Southport’s new Labour MP to urge the Chancellor to change her mind.
Around 10 million pensioners across the country will lose their payments, worth around £300 for most pensioners. Age UK have already started a petition to reverse the decision.
Councillor Prendergast said, “The decision by the Chancellor and the Labour government to scrap the Winter Fuel Payment is the wrong one that will harm many households across Southport and the Northern Parishes. Many older people will now have to choose between heating or eating this coming winter.
The spurious claims by Labour about the economy totally ignore that the UK has some of the highest growth rates in the G7, inflation is now back under control and all of the economic data points to a far better outlook than Labour are trying to fool people into believing.
Nobody should be under any illusion that Labour have made a political choice here. They have chosen to take money away from pensioners who have worked all their lives in order to cave into union demands for inflation busting pay awards.
We’ve seen pay awards of 22% for junior doctors and 15% for train drivers. The unions are back in charge and will no doubt be back for more in future as we can already see with rail union bosses planning further strikes even after their bumper pay deal.
Labour promised to keep energy bills down, yet bills will go up around 10% in October. Many in Southport will feel that this is a broken promise, with Labour prioritising inflation busting pay deals.
Pensioners in Southport and the Northern Parishes are already feeling the cost of Labour.
Southport has one of the highest population of retirees in the country and tens of thousands of people in the town, with very little notice, will now be financially worse off because of Labour.
In the Northern Parishes too, many will be affected and those in more isolated rural areas who rely on the Winter Fuel Payment to help keep their oil fired boilers filled will also now feel the pinch.
We have also only just emerged from an energy crisis and with the possibility of it happening again, with the situation in Ukraine, it seems incredibly shortsighted and mean spirited to bring this measure in.
I’m calling on our newly elected Labour MP in Southport to speak to the Chancellor to put forward the case for maintaining the Winter Fuel Payment in its original form and also asking him to raise the issue in the House of Commons on behalf of pensioners across Southport and the Northern Parishes.
I very much hope that our new MP will join me in asking for this terrible decision by the new Labour government to be reversed.”
