From winter fuel payments to two-child benefit: All Starmer’s U-turns explained

Sir Keir Starmer appears to be heading for a number of major U-turns amid growing concern from MPs about the direction of government and following a devastating performance at the local elections.

The prime minister last month announced plans to reverse his controversial cuts to winter fuel payments, saying he wants more pensioners to be eligible for the benefit.

There is also a growing expectation he will lift the two-child benefit cap. While nothing has been announced yet, the prime minister is privately said to be in favour of lifting the cap – but has refused to commit to anything until the child poverty strategy is published in the autumn.

Below, The Independent looks at all the times Sir Keir has U-turned on his promises or let voters down on the journey from Labour leader to prime minister.

In July, the chancellor announced that pensioners not in receipt of pension credits or other means-tested benefits would no longer receive winter fuel payments – a £300 payment to help with energy costs in the colder months.

After spending months ruling out a U-turn, the prime minister in May told MPs he now wants to ensure more pensioners are eligible for the payment – something he claimed has come as a result of an improving economic picture.

Weeks after the announcement, there is still very little detail on who will be eligible. Pensions minister Torsten Bell said there would be no return to a universal payment for all and it is expected that the government will instead change the £11,500 threshold at which people can claim.

But with no simple way to process that, there are reports the allowance could be paid to all pensioners, with the amount later repaid by those on higher incomes.

Promising in 2020 to create a social security system fit for the 21st century, Sir Keir said: “We must scrap the inhuman Work Capability Assessments and private provision of disability assessments… scrap punitive sanctions, two-child limit and benefits cap.”

But before the election, Sir Keir said Labour was “not changing” the Tory policy if Labour were to win power. He has stuck to his guns, even suspending seven Labour MPs for rebelling against his King’s Speech in a bid to have the policy scrapped.

And now, it looks like the prime minister is gearing up to row back on the position. While nothing has been announced, the prime minister is privately said to be in favour of lifting the cap.

He has refused to commit to anything until the child poverty strategy is published in the autumn but has insisted he is “absolutely determined” to “drive down” child poverty and has repeatedly sidestepped questions on the issue when pressed on it.

In a 2022 interview, Sir Keir said: “All your working life you’ve got in mind the date on which you can retire and get your pension, and just as you get towards it, the goalposts are moved and you don’t get it, and it’s a real injustice.

“We need to do something about it. That wasn’t the basis on which you paid in or the basis on which you were working.”

But, in a familiar change of tune since becoming prime minister, Sir Keir last year sent his work and pensions secretary out to tell Women Against State Pension Inequality, Waspi women, they would not be getting any compensation.

As shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves announced the party’s plans for an extra £28bn a year in green investment at Labour’s conference in September 2021.

But before the election, Sir Keir ditched the £28bn a year target and said instead that he would spend a far smaller sum on Great British Energy, a national wealth fund for clean investment and pledges on energy efficiency.

Labour’s pre-election manifesto promised not to increase national insurance.

It stated: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.”

But, Sir Keir and Chancellor Ms Reeves used the ambiguity around whether they meant employer or employee national insurance contributions to steamroll the pledge at Labour’s first Budget in power.

The pair argue that they only promised to keep employee contributions frozen and instead landed firms with a 2 per cent increase to employer national insurance contributions.

Farmers have also said they feel betrayed by the PM, after a 2023 National Farmers Union (NFU) speech in which he promised to have “a new relationship with the countryside and farmers”.

Sir Keir claimed to be concerned that “each day brings a new existential risk to British farming. He added: “Losing a farm is not like losing any other business, it can’t come back.”

Going even further, then shadow environment secretary Steve Reed said it was “desperate nonsense” to suggest he would scrap tax breaks for farmers, just weeks before the July 4 poll.

But, in another hugely unpopular Budget bombshell, Sir Keir slashed agricultural property relief, meaning previously exempt farms will be his with a 20 per cent levy on farming assets worth more than £1m.

Critics have said it will see family farmers forced to sell up, ripping the heart out of countryside communities.

Strict regulations on bonuses, which limit annual payouts to twice a banker’s salary, were introduced by the EU in 2014 in a bid to avoid excessive risk-taking after the 2008 financial crisis.

Former prime minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng scrapped the cap in 2022, in a bid to encourage more investment in the UK.

Sir Keir had previously vowed to reinstate the cap, saying in 2022 that lifting it “shows the Tories are absolutely tone deaf to what so many people are going through”.

But in another major U-turn, Ms Reeves announced before the election that the party “does not have any intention of bringing that back”.

Sir Keir’s bid to become leader of the Labour Party was based on 10 pledges, now infamous for having almost all been summarily dumped since.

They included promises to increase income tax for top earners, abolish tuition fees, support public ownership of energy and water firms, give voting rights to EU nationals and defend freedom of movement.

He has said a tougher economic backdrop means the promises are now no longer deliverable. But many Labour members who backed Sir Keir’s leadership bid feel betrayed, arguing that he posed as a left-winger to win over Corbynistas before pivoting sharply to the right.

After figures showed an exodus of millionaires from the UK had accelerated since Labour took office, chancellor Ms Reeves offered a concession to the super-rich and hinted Labour would row back on its non-dom tax raid.

The planned changes will see Labour expand the temporary repatriation facility, which lets non-doms bring income and capital gains into the UK with a minimal tax bill.

Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk