A summary of today's developments
The chancellor Rachel Reeves told a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday that she is “not immune” to concerns over plans to dramatically scale back the winter fuel allowance. She said: “I understand the decision that this Government have made on winter fuel is a difficult decision. I’m not immune to the arguments that many in this room have made. We considered those when the decision was made.” She pointed to the rise by £900 of the new state pension compared to a year ago. Reeves said: “Tomorrow, we get data for earnings growth, which will inform the increase in the pension next year. We are protecting the triple lock, not just for this year, but for the duration of this Parliament.” Reeves said there would be “more difficult decisions to come.” After the meeting, a spokesperson for the chancellor said MPs showed “strong support” for the plan.
A thinktank suggested that the government’s plan to means-test winter fuel payments could push an extra 100,000 pensioners into poverty. In a briefing sent out ahead of the vote tomorrow on removing winter fuel payments from all pensioners apart from those receiving pension credit, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said the government’s policy is likely to increase the number of pensioners living in poverty (defined as having less than 60% of median household income).
Local transport authorities across England will be able to run and control bus services under a Labour overhaul designed to “save vital routes”, Simon Lightwood, the transport minister, told MPs in a Commons statement.
Government plans to introduce VAT on private school fees also came under fire during education questions, with Tory MPs warning of a looming capacity crisis in the state sector as a result of the tax hike. Shadow education secretary Damian Hinds warned of bigger class sizes and a shortage of school places, as a result of parents pulling their children out of the independent sector to avoid the additional fees. Education minister Stephen Morgan said the number of children in private schools has remained steady, despite a 20% real terms increase in average private school fees since 2010 and a rise of 55% since 2003. He said his department would be monitoring occupancy and would work with local authorities to help them fulfil their duty to secure places.
The previous government’s legislation on freedom of speech may have facilitated “hate speech including Holocaust denial” to spread on university campuses, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, told MPs. Phillipson has paused the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 to consider other options including its potential repeal.
Wes Streeting rubbished the Conservative party’s record on health as he responded to Commons questions about his decision to take advice from his Labour predecessor Alan Milburn. In response to an urgent question tabled by Victoria Atkins, the shadow health secretary, Streeting strongly defended his decision to invite Milburn to meetings, he said: “Unlike our predecessors, this is a government that can’t get enough of experts.” Streeting said that when he became health secretary, replacing Atkins, he was confronted with the “worst crisis in the history of the NHS”, including waiting lists at 7.6m, more than a million patients per month waiting more than four weeks for a GP appointment, junior doctors still threatening strike action and NHS dentist appointments impossible to find.
Conservative leadership contenders have called the lacklustre handling of the contest disgraceful after it emerged they may only get a few minutes each to address the party’s conference. The contest, which was expected to be a battle for the soul of the party, had been reduced to leadership contenders being given just 10 minutes on the stage, insiders said.
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My colleague Jessica Elgot on the state of play following the Labour meeting.
MPs leaving the meeting believe v few - if any - will vote against the government on winter fuel payments - but some will find themselves absent on constituency business.
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 9, 2024
Prolonged cheering and clapping for Reeves at the end of the meeting…
Reeves is arguing in the PLP meeting that to vote against the winter fuel change is essentially rejecting the entire notion of means testing it.
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) September 9, 2024
One MP says that argument has traction. “Everyone in that meeting agrees it’s not right that millionaires get this payment.”
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