LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced a battle of nerves with his Labour Party on Tuesday, winning a parliamentary vote on a contentious decision to cut a payment that helps millions of pensioners pay winter heating bills — but not ending unease about it among his lawmakers.
Starmer says the decision to remove the winter fuel allowance, worth between 200 and 300 pounds ($262 and $393) a year, from all but the poorest retirees is needed because of the dire state of the public finances left by the previous Conservative government.
But the decision to hit people on fixed incomes in one of the government’s first economic moves since winning a landslide election victory in July has caused disquiet in the center-left Labour Party. Seventeen Labour lawmakers backed a call to postpone the cut.
“Tough decisions are unpopular decisions,” Starmer told his Cabinet on Monday, telling ministers that “we have to fix the foundations of our economy and that means tough choices.”
Labour’s large House of Commons majority meant the government easily voted down, by a margin of 348-228, an attempt to overturn the cut. Only one Labour lawmaker voted with the opposition, along with several legislators serving suspensions from the party over a previous rebellion. Many Labour MPs backed the move after expressing doubts, while 53 did not vote. Of these, some had authorized absences while others deliberately abstained.
“It’s my conscience that I cannot vote for these measures," said one, Rachael Maskell.
Treasury chief Rachel Reeves on Monday had urged unity, telling lawmakers, “We stand, we lead and we govern together.”
During the election campaign, Starmer vowed to get the country’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.
Since winning, he has struck a gloomy note, saying there is a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances left by the previous government, and warning that “things will get worse” before they get better.
The Conservatives accuse Labour of penalizing vulnerable older people. Conservative leadership candidate Mel Stride said the cut would hit “millions of pensioners … who are on extremely low incomes.”
The cut is expected to reduce the number of pensioners receiving the winter fuel allowance from 11.4 million to 1.5 million. The government argues that pensioners will be better off even with the cut because the state pension, which is indexed to wages and inflation, is due to rise by 460 pounds ($600) next year.
Starmer is also facing criticism over the early release of more than 1,700 inmates to make space in Britain’s overcrowded prisons. Starting Tuesday, some prisoners are being freed after serving 40% of their sentences, rather than the usual 50%. Inmates convicted of serious violence or sexual offenses are not eligible.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the government had no choice because “the bath was in danger of overflowing, and they either had to turn the taps off or they had to let some water out.” But he warned it was likely some of those freed would go on to commit new crimes.
Space is needed partly to accommodate scores of people sentenced over anti-immigrant unrest in August. Starmer, a former public prosecutor, has vowed a tough response to the violence in which crowds attacked police, vandalized businesses and attempted to set fire to a hotel housing asylum-seekers.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a visit at the National Crime Agency (NCA) headquarters in London, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (Benjamin Cremel/Pool via AP)
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen put women in many of the top roles on her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc on Tuesday, despite the reluctance of many EU member states to give in to her demand for gender parity.
Von der Leyen put six women among the eight top positions in her team. Her position as EU chief and Kaja Kallas as foreign policy chief were already agreed on by government leaders.
Von der Leyen on Tuesday added Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribero to lead the green transition, along with Ribero also becoming the anti-trust czar. Three other women were also named as Commission vice presidents.
The appointments of the Commission team — which veers to the right after the June elections saw a surge of far right parties — still have to be confirmed.
The appointment as executive vice president of Raffaele Fitto of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard right Brothers of Italy party is bound to cause controversy during the parliamentary confirmation hearing in the coming weeks.
Also on Tuesday, von der Leyen gave French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne the industrial portfolio, after French heavyweight Thierry Breton resigned and openly criticized the EU chief for allegedly “questionable governance” on Monday,
It left France with a strong voice in the Commission, and many saw Breton's shock resignation more as a removal by von der Leyen of one of her most open internal critics after exerting pressure on French authorities.
Compounding such problems was the defiance of many of the 27 member states as von der Leyen struggled to get anywhere close to gender parity on her Commission team — they staunchly refused to give her a choice between a male and a female candidate.
She said that originally, EU nations only proposed 22% female candidates before she started to push for more.
“So I worked with the member states and we were able to improve the balance to 40% women and 60% men. And it shows that — as much as we have achieved — there is still so much more work to do,” von der Leyen said.
If she could not get full gender parity in numbers, von der Leyen made sure they were more than well represented in the top jobs.
After days of secret talks with individual European governments about their picks, von der Leyen huddled with the leaders of the political groups at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, to discuss the makeup of her college before making the final announcement.
Now attention will center on the hearings in the European Parliament, where each candidate can be rejected to force a member state to put another candidate forward.
All eyes are expected to be on Fitto.
Greens lawmaker Rasmus Andresen said the appointment of Fitto, a representative of a far-right party, to the post of executive vice president of the Commission is “completely incomprehensible.”
“Can an anti-European manage EU funds,” Andresen asked.
However, von der Leyen said the Commission team had to reflect Italy's weight as a founding member and major economy.
"The importance of Italy is reflected in the portfolio and the executive vice president. And I think the balance is also very well kept,” von der Leyen said.
Even if the Commission's makeup has hardly become the talk of bar rooms or barber shops across the vast EU of 450 million people, it has enthralled the upper echelons of politics and bureaucracy, as they sought to boost one candidate or undermine another.
The Commission proposes legislation for the EU’s 27 member countries and ensures that the rules governing the world’s biggest trading bloc are respected. It’s made up of a College of Commissioners with a range of portfolios similar to those of government ministers, including agriculture, economic, competition, security and migration policy.
The Commission is to start work on Nov. 1, but speculation is rife that it might not get down to business before January.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc, during a press conference at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc, during a press conference at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents her new team for the next five-year, during a press conference at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives for a session at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc, during a press conference at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Strasbourg.(AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, left, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, talk prior to the start of a session at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, second right, speaks with from left, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton and European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi during a meeting of the College of Commissioners at EU headquarters in Brussels, on June 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
