Who was Rachel Reeves more worried about tonight when she addressed the Parliamentary Labour party? The Labour MPs who will rebel against the government tomorrow in the vote on restricting winter fuel payment to those on pension credit – or the ones who are staying loyal?
No one spoke out against the cut when the Chancellor spoke this evening, but others have made their displeasure clear in broadcasts, or by signing the early-day motion calling for the government to U-turn. Reeves told the party: ‘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.’ That was a way of underlining that the government is not going to U-turn, because no new information has become available since the decision was made.
The MPs who are staying loyal are more important than the rebels
The MPs who are staying loyal are more important than the rebels, because they need to know that the government isn’t going to U-turn. Reeves and Keir Starmer know how dangerous U-turns are from their experience of watching the regular humiliation of Conservative backbenchers who had defended policies that their bosses then dropped. The MPs they’ve asked to keep faith with them need to know that this is going to be worth it. The worst thing politically that could happen now is that the government does U-turn and embarrass them. That is a sure-fire way of creating unnecessary enemies.
That’s not to say that sticking to the plan isn’t going to be very uncomfortable politically, too. That’s why Reeves then told the committee room: ‘There are more difficult decisions to come. I don’t say that because I relish it. I don’t, but it is a reflection of the inheritance that we face. So, when members are looking at where to apportion blame, when pensioners are looking at where to apportion blame, I tell you where the blame lies. It lies with the Conservatives and the reckless decisions that they made.’ She also exhorted MPs that ‘we stand, we lead and we govern together’.
All very stirring stuff, and Reeves has been working harder on her outreach into the party over the past couple of weeks after senior colleagues observed that she needed to broaden her support on the backbenches as early as she could (in fairness, there are quite a lot of new Labour MPs to get around). But both the Chancellor and Starmer know that their colleagues will also want a sense that the sum of their time in government will be more than just Labour talking about how dreadful everything is.
Reeves did say this evening that there was a ‘prize’ in the form of a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity to reset politics in our country’ and that the party needs to prove that ‘economic stability is the hallmark of Labour governments’ because ‘with that stability comes investment. With that investment comes growth. With growth comes prosperity’. She will need to use more compelling images of what those things might tangibly mean to people – including pensioners – so that there is something bigger for Labour to look forward to than a miserable autumn.
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