Tom Gibson, Bradford Socialist Party
Betrayed. That’s how people tell me they feel about Labour when I’m out campaigning around West Yorkshire.
In the general election campaign, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves made no indication they were going to scrap the Winter Fuel Payment for over ten million pensioners.
Pensioners I have spoken with have expressed their worries about how they would be able to afford heating, a sobering reminder of how these ‘cost-cutting’ policies affect the elderly. More than a million pensioners are skipping meals in order to pay for fuel costs, according to Age UK. This is the impact of Labour’s callous cruelty.
We have been getting a great response to our demand that the government reinstates the Winter Fuel Payment for all pensioners. And our demand that councils should be stepping in now with hardship funds made available to all pensioners who need it.
Privatised energy companies have been driving up prices and raking in huge profits. We call for full nationalisation of the energy industry, under democratic workers’ control and with no compensation for the greedy bosses. Then investment in environmentally sustainable energy could be prioritised, and energy prices cut.
No one should have to make the infamously cruel choice between ‘heating or eating’.
