Abstentions over winter fuel payment motion shows how spineless most Labour MPs really are

The new Labour Party government has overwhelmingly voted to follow through on its callous plans to cut the winter fuel payment to millions of pensioners this winter. Crocodile tears were on full display as over 50 Labour MPs failed to stand up to party’s whip – instead abstaining like the capitalist establishment-capitulating cowards they are.

Many of these are shamelessly, misleadingly claiming they went against their government’s plans to plunge pensioners into fuel poverty. Ultimately though, their pathetic excuses for not opposing this outright ring hollow.

Winter fuel payment motion

As a sign of the new government’s moral vacuity, it was a Conservative opposition motion that sought to strike down neoliberal Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves’s disingenuous plan to plug the so-called £22bn black hole. Though, as the Canary has previously pointed out, this is of course a con anyway.

Primarily, it’s simply a pretext for Reeves’ Osborne austerity tribute act. So there’s no small amount of irony that it was the Tories now in opposition moving to stop the cruel cut. However, let’s not forget that the Tories had also previously mooted this plan, and oversaw fourteen years of similarly disgraceful benefit cuts. Pot, kettle moment if ever there were.

Nonetheless, 348 MPs – mostly Labour – demolished the motion. In effect, this meant they greenlit the government’s plan to means-test the benefit – doing away with it for many millions of elderly citizens.

Jon Trickett was the only Labour MP to break ranks and oppose the government.

Understandably, many are already incensed at the hundreds of Labour MPs who’ve essentially voted to remove the winter fuel payment for the majority of pensioners. However, there was similar ire for the 52 Labour MPs that abstained on the motion:

The names of COWARDS.

All these Labour MPs abstained rather than voting against the evil bill that their OWN research claims will kill thousands this winter.

Career politicians with no morals. pic.twitter.com/kfnhvItNAw

— Alex Armstrong (@alexharmstrong) September 10, 2024

Starmerite loyalists make shameless U-turns

This was because many of these same MPs had been publicly railing against their government’s plans.

Newly-elected Labour MP for Poole Neil Duncan-Jordan has tabled an early day motion. This calls for the government to delay cutting the winter fuel payment until it has conducted a full public consultation and impact assessment:

I have tabled this motion on the Winter Fuel payment and I am asking other MPs to show their support 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/580DNfKtuz

— Neil Duncan-Jordan MP (@NeilForPoole) September 2, 2024

A good defence of the principle of universal benefits by the Labour MP for Poole Neil Duncan-Jordan.
Whether he’ll vote against the removal of the #WinterFuelPayment remains to be seen. #Commons

— Briefcase Michael (@BriefcaseMike) September 10, 2024

Spoiler alert: he abstained.

In fact, there were many MPs who made like a slippery Starmer and U-turned:

Fast forward two elections and he voted to scrap the #WinterFuelPayment for the majority of pensioners.

There’s always a tweet 👇 https://t.co/va48tiz1Rp

— North Staffs TUC (@NorthStaffsTUC) September 10, 2024

It was some of the vapid excuses from right-wing abstainers that left a vile taste in the mouth most.

After all her bluster, right-wing Rosie Duffield was scared senseless at being branded anything like the radical rebels who’d stood against the Labour leadership:

Rosie Duffield MP said she abstained in the winter fuel payments vote, because she didn’t want to vote with the tories and Labour would’ve withdrawn the whip and kicked her out the party. How about just voting with the pensioners and what’s right, and fuck any party Rosie?

— christopher mcglade (@christophermcg8) September 10, 2024

The Canterbury Labour MP @RosieDuffield1 confirms she abstained on the winter fuel allowance vote today. She has described her govt’s decision to cut it as “brutal”. @bbcsoutheast

— Charlotte Wright (@charlotte_bbc) September 10, 2024

Moreover, it was mere hours before that MP Rachel Maskell was masquerading as someone who gave a shit about pensioners this winter:

Shameful from @RachaelMaskell.

Why abstain? Why not vote AGAINST?

More concerned to retain the whip than for vulnerable pensioners. #WinterFuelAllowance #WinterFuelPayments https://t.co/nIrrO8nvub

— DavidHeathcote (@DavidMHeathcote) September 10, 2024

Losing the whip

Because, when push came to shove, maintaining the party whip was more important to many Labour MPs than preventing pensioners dying this winter.

Essentially, party leadership had threatened to strip MPs who rebelled against the government’s policy line:

Multiple Labour MPs who abstained on today’s winter fuel payment vote tell me they were told they would lose the whip if they voted against.

“I wanted to vote against but I would struggle to do my job if I did. Abstaining was the best I could do. I’m so angry,” one MP tells me.

— Shehab Khan ITV (@ShehabKhan) September 10, 2024

Of course, this also draws attention to the glaring problem of the party whip model for politics in the first place. Obviously, it shows how MPs of the two main political parties operate for their interests first and foremost.

However, some MPs have had the integrity to vote with conscience and constituents in mind. This was the case with the seven former Labour MPs who previously went against the new Labour government over the child benefit limit on benefits. But this time, one lone Labour MP – Jon Trickett – did so. Five of the seven whipless former Labour MPs joined him.

Labour lies over winter fuel payment vote

To make matters worse, these MPs would have had to have done some creative excuse-gymnastics to abstain on the motion. Specifically, parliamentary rules require a reason  and permission for absence. As the Guardian’s Pippa Crerar highlighted:

But what they did not acknowledge was that many of those who had permission to abstain were bitterly opposed to the cut. In the days running up to the vote, whips had been encouraging them to find urgent constituency business so they could legitimately be absent.

In other words, many had actively planned to sidestep the vote using some convenient constituency business:

MPs leaving the meeting believe v few – if any – will vote against the government on winter fuel payments – but some will find themselves absent on constituency business.

Prolonged cheering and clapping for Reeves at the end of the meeting…

— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 9, 2024

At the end of the day, that so few current Labour MPs genuinely punched up showed precisely the problem with Labour’s landslide election results. Labour parliamentarians faced losing the backing of the corporate-funded political powerhouse that is their party.

Fuel-poor pensioners face a winter of genuine fear and literal freezing after losing this vital payment, just as energy bills rise. Ultimately, Labour is packed with a bunch of servile, self-serving Starmerite sell-outs. This latest vote only underscored this fact all the more.

Feature image via Youtube – Rachel Reeves