LIVERPOOL: Members of Britain’s governing Labour Party dealt Prime Minister Keir Starmer a blow on Wednesday, rejecting his decision to cut payments that offset winter heating costs for millions of retirees.
The vote on the final day of Labour’s annual conference is not binding, but it’s a setback to Starmer’s efforts to unite his center-left party around the contentious measure.
Since winning office in July, Starmer has cautioned that the dire state of the public finances inherited from the last Conservative government means he must make hard choices such as ending the winter fuel allowance, worth between 200 and 300 pounds ($262 and $393), for all but the poorest pensioners.
Trade unions that are among Labour’s funders and allies organized resistance to the cut at the conference in Liverpool, northwest England. They forced a vote on a demand for the decision to be reversed. It was narrowly passed in a show-of-hands vote amid cheers and jeers in the conference hall.
“I do not understand how our new Labour government can cut the winter fuel payment for pensioners and leave the super-rich untouched,” said Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, to applause from delegates. “This is not what people voted for. It is the wrong decision and it needs to be reversed.”
The government has promised the withdrawal of the heating allowance will be offset by an above-inflation increase in the state pension and other measures to reduce poverty.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall told delegates that the cut “wasn’t a decision we wanted or expected to make.” But she argued that “this Labour government has done more to help the poorest pensioners in the last two months than the Tories did in 14 years.”
Starmer tried to unite the party and appeal to a skeptical electorate in his first conference speech as prime minister on Tuesday, telling voters exhausted by years of political and economic turmoil that better times are on the way — if they swallow his recipe of short-term pain for long-term gain.
He said he would make “tough decisions” — code for public spending restraint and tax increases — to achieve economic growth to fund schools, hospitals, roads, railways and more.
Starmer acknowledged some of those decisions would be unpopular, but said: “We will turn our collar up and face the storm.”
Labour Party members deal a blow to Starmer a day after his appeal for unity
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Labour Party members deal a blow to Starmer a day after his appeal for unity
- One is ending the winter fuel allowance, worth between 200 and 300 pounds, for all but the poorest pensioners
- Since winning office in July, Starmer has cautioned that the dire state of the public finances inherited from the last Conservative government means he must make hard choices
China acts against 40 Japanese entities over military ties
BEIJING: China’s commerce ministry took action against 40 Japanese companies and entities on Tuesday, citing national security concerns over their military ties.
It imposed export controls on 20 entities, including Mitsubishi and the Japanese space agency, accusing them of helping to enhance Japan’s military capabilities.
The ministry added a further 20 Japanese entities, including Subaru, to a “watch list” requiring stricter reviews of exports of “dual-use items.”
“The above measures are aimed at curbing Japans’ ‘remilitarization’ and nuclear ambitions and are completely legitimate, reasonable and lawful,” a commerce ministry statement said.
“China’s lawful listing actions target only a small number of Japanese entities, relevant measures target dual-use items and do not impact normal economic and trade between China and Japan,” it said, adding that “honest and law-abiding Japanese entities have nothing to worry about.”
Companies can apply to be removed from the “watch list” if they cooperate with Beijing’s verification terms.
China has ramped up pressure on its neighbor since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Tokyo may react militarily to an attack on Taiwan, which Beijing has vowed to seize control of by force if necessary.
Last month, Beijing announced a broad ban on the export of “dual-use” goods with potential military applications.
China has since begun restricting exports to Japanese companies of scarce and expensive “heavy” rare earths, as well as the powerful magnets containing them, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing two exporters in China.
