{"id":130502,"date":"2024-09-09T01:56:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T01:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/09\/busy-week-for-labour-as-starmer-facing-pressure-over-winter-fuel-payments-and-first-prisoners-to-be-released-early\/"},"modified":"2024-09-09T01:56:11","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T01:56:11","slug":"busy-week-for-labour-as-starmer-facing-pressure-over-winter-fuel-payments-and-first-prisoners-to-be-released-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/09\/busy-week-for-labour-as-starmer-facing-pressure-over-winter-fuel-payments-and-first-prisoners-to-be-released-early\/","title":{"rendered":"Busy week for Labour as Starmer facing pressure over winter fuel payments and first prisoners to be released early"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Labour’s post-election honeymoon looks to be over as it faces pressure this week over winter fuel payments, releasing prisoners early, and the state of the NHS.<\/p>\n

Two months after winning a historic majority, Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers have a busy week as they face pressure not just from other parties, but their own MPs.<\/p>\n

A vote on winter fuel payments, the prime minister speaking at the TUC conference, prisoners being released early, the publication of a report into the NHS and Sir Keir’s trip to the US are all on the cards this week.<\/p>\n

Monday will see Chancellor Rachel Reeves addressing Labour MPs at a Parliamentary Labour Party meeting, where she is expected to face concerns about removing the winter fuel payment from 10 million pensioners.<\/p>\n

MPs will vote on Tuesday on whether to limit the winter fuel payment<\/a><\/strong> to those on pension credit, after the government announced its intention at the end of July.<\/p>\n

Labour MPs will be told they must vote with the government, however several, particularly on the left of the party, have voiced their opposition to the cut.<\/p>\n

It is understood they may abstain instead of voting against the government, after Sir Keir set a clear precedent by suspending seven MPs<\/a><\/strong> from Labour after they rebelled over the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir would not say if he would again suspend MPs for voting against the government, telling the BBC on Sunday: “That will be a matter for the chief whip.”<\/p>\n

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‘Not remotely happy’ about cutting winter fuel
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The prime minister will also address the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference on Tuesday, where he is set to be questioned about the winter fuel payment cut and workers’ rights.<\/p>\n

Sharon Graham, head of the Unite union, told Sky News on Sunday that they want the government to “think again” and called for a wealth tax instead.<\/p>\n

She said: “We are in crisis. The Tories left a mess. No one’s denying that. Labour is right about that, but the choices they make to clear it up are really important.<\/p>\n

“If we said the top 50 families in Britain are worth \u00a3500 billion, why aren’t they being looked at?<\/p>\n

“Why are you looking at pensioners who really don’t have any sort of type of money? That’s the wrong choice to make.”<\/p>\n

Read more:
Starmer ‘determined to make tough decisions’<\/a><\/strong>
Sign ups for pension credit double<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n Rachel Reeves will try to allay concerns from Labour MPs about the winter fuel payment cut. Pic: PA
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In a packed day for the government, Tuesday is also when the first tranche of prisoners will be released early under the Labour government as it tries to alleviate overpopulated prisons.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Justice admitted this week some serious offenders will be released early if they are serving a sentence for a lesser crime, having completed a sentence for a serious crime.<\/p>\n

Reports on Saturday also claimed those serving time for common assault for being violent towards a partner would not be flagged as domestic abusers, so could be released early.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir blamed the Conservative government for not building enough prisons, saying he was “forced into this”.<\/p>\n

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Government ‘picking the pockets of pensioners’<\/span>
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Thursday will see the publication of a report into the state of the NHS<\/a><\/strong> by Lord Darzi, an eminent cancer surgeon and former Labour health minister.<\/p>\n

The report has already had some sections released in summary, with children’s health and the progression of heart and circulatory diseases heavily criticised.<\/p>\n

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Sir Keir said the report showed the NHS was “broken” as he again hit out at the Conservatives’ “unforgivable” reforms.<\/p>\n

To end the week, the prime minister will head to Washington DC for his second meeting with President Joe Biden since becoming prime minister.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Sir Keir denied the US was angry at the UK for suspending some arms sale licences to Israel and said they had spoken before and after the decision.<\/p>\n

He said discussions with Mr Biden will focus on the next few months in Ukraine and the Middle East.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Labour’s post-election honeymoon looks to be over as it faces pressure this week over winter fuel payments, releasing prisoners early, and the state of the NHS. Two months after winning a historic majority, Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers have a busy week as they face pressure not just from other parties, but their own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/09\/768x432\/image_6679648.jpg?20240908143217","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[11511,1402,1924,2363,843,672,1500,40164,3125,3960,1513,2802],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130504,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130502\/revisions\/130504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}