Even its natural supporters are stunned by its sheer ineptitude. This morning, Will Hutton at the left-wing Observer newspaper said Labour has made more early mistakes “than any postwar government”.
He wrote that BEFORE today’s shock news that Sue Gray has quit her role as PM Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, which has plunged Labour even deeper into crisis.
Labour is having a shocker and it all started with chancellor Rachel Reeves’ unhinged decision to scrap the Winter Fuel Payment for 10million pensioners.
And that’s where it should end, too. The only way Labour can get out of the hole it’s dug for itself is to backtrack on its first and worst policy error of all.
It should then take a look at the others, too. There are plenty to choose from. Everything this government touches turns to chaos.
Seconds after scrapping the Winter Fuel Payment, Reeves announced she was killing off the proposed £86,000 cap on social care costs.
While the cap wasn’t perfect it did at least prevent families from being bankrupted by long-term care fees.
Labour further infuriated its own supporters by voting to retain the two-child limit on benefit payments.
And “giftgate” has united the country in rage as Starmer and Reeves inflict austerity while grabbing all the freebies they can for themselves.
They’ve also made the disastrous decision to talk down the UK economy, with endless burbling about that £22billion black hole.
Every tax hike Reeves is targeting will cost the Treasury more money than it raises.
Imposing VAT on private school fees will backfire as the Treasury has to spend more educating thousands of children driven back into the state sector.
Reeves thought hiking capital gains tax (CGT) would raise £15billion, but it could cost us £2billion as people hold onto assets in the hope that CGT will be cut later, while entrepreneurs flee to avoid the levy.
Now Reeves is looks set to break a pre-election pledge and borrow another £50billion, which she will justify by fiddling with the fiscal rules.
That will only add to the nation’s debt and drive up borrowing costs, too. Which could trigger disaster for mortgage borrowers.
It’s a catalogue of errors and it all began with the Winter Fuel Payment. Labour must rethink that now.
That’s where Labour lost the country. Because it demonstrated that it didn’t really understand how Britain works.
Many on the left convinced themselves that “baby boomer” pensioners were all super wealthy and wouldn’t miss they £200 or £300 they got once a year towards their winter fuel bills.
It probably didn’t sound like much to well-heeled Reeves, but it could be a matter of life or death to thousands of shivering pensioners.
Axeing the Winter Fuel Payment won’t save anywhere near the £1.5billion she originally claimed – because it’s triggered a surge in Pension Credit claims from the poorest.
The political damage is huge, the financial benefit negligible.
Reeves needs to admit her mistake and reverse the Winter Fuel Payment today. Then she and Starmer need to get to work on the rest of Labour’s backfiring policies. There’s a long list and it’s growing by the day.
