Keir Starmer's winter fuel allowance cut could quickly be his poll tax moment: GP Taylor

The Prime Minister has alienated the white working class of the country with his insinuation that we are all thugs and whilst promoting two-tier policing he has allowed his Chancellor to put millions of pensioners into fuel poverty.

He appears to have a short memory and forgets what he has said in Parliament.

Only a couple of months before the election, Kier Starmer questioned Rishi Sunak and said: “Last year the prime minister was apparently drawing up plans to remove the winter fuel allowance from pensioners. His paymaster general went a step further. He said these are the sorts of things that we need to look at. So will he now rule out taking pensioners' winter fuel payments off them to help fund his £46bn black hole?”

Why the sudden change? Labour was aware of a black hole in the finances before the election. Did they lie to the electorate to get votes?

Starmer has gone back on his word and allowed the Chancellor of the Exchequer to draw up legislation to take the Winter Fuel Allowance from people who have worked all their lives and find retirement financially difficult.

It means that over 11 million pensioners will be stripped of much needed cash, with people on incomes as low as £1,000 a month affected from this winter. Experts suggest the move could generate savings of less than two-thirds of the amount the Chancellor believes.

It is ironic that Ms Reeves tweeted in May 2017: “It's Labour who will stand up for pensioners, defending the triple lock and winter fuel payments.”

In the 2023/24 reporting year, Reeves claimed almost £1,300 for utilities for her London home, including almost £1,200 for energy, while receiving an MP’s salary of more than £90,000. Not a bad little earner. I know lots of pensioners who are surviving on little more the £800 a month.

How dare Reeves claim even one penny for her heating when she earns so much. I thought socialists were on the side of the people. Obviously, in her metropolitan utopia, everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others. The woman should be ashamed of what is a tyrannical policy.

What next? Will Labour means test the state pension and steal the money from the pockets of millions of people over 66 who have worked hard all their lives?

It is as if Reeves and Starmer forget that the state pension isn’t a benefit.

I paid National Insurance for 46 years and believed I was investing the money for my future. In my mind, the money I paid in wasn’t a tax, but a saving. Are they going to steal it from me so that they can give it to someone who has never worked, put it towards the £30 billion net zero scam, the £117 million to protect mosques and the £3 billion a year we are sending to Ukraine, or funding the open border migrant scheme?

Labour is and always will be a party of tax and spend, squeezing the working classes until the pips squeak, robbing the workers to finance pet projects.

Starmer certainly knows how to waste our hard-earned money and it is something he will pay for before the next election. He may be stupid enough to think that he can pull a fast one with the pensioners, but he is wrong.

People of all ages know that scrapping the winter fuel allowance and going after old age pensions is morally wrong.

Thatcher tried the same thing with the poll tax and look how that ended up for her.

There are 11 million pensioners in Britain and many of those are angry that all the years they have worked and contributed to this country are treated as casually as throwing soiled paper down a toilet.

Has Starmer forgotten his promise that he will be on the side of the pensioners let down by the Tories?

I think that he didn’t believe it then just as he doesn’t believe it now. It was just warm words to woo voters.

What he must understand is that the pensioners of today were the Punks, Rockers and Mods of yesterday. We are the rebellious generation. We got rid of Thatcher and we can get rid of him.

A word of advice Mr Starmer - don’t take on the Victor Meldrew generation.

Grumpy old people we may be, but there is still a political fight left within us.