Birmingham Labour have today voted down calls to support pensioners facing the government's winter fuel allowance cut and declined an invitation to jointly write to the Labour Government asking the Chancellor to reverse the decision to cut WFA.
Birmingham Local Conservatives today submitted a motion to Full Council calling for all group leaders to jointly write to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves (Lab, Leeds West & Pudsey), for the council to run a programme encouraging the uptake of pension credit as 17,000 eligible pensioners are not currently in receipt of pension credit in the City, and to sign the Age UK petition to Save the Winter Fuel Payment for Struggling Pensioners. The motion was put by Cllr Deirdre Alden (Con, Edgbaston), Shadow Cabinet Member for Governance, Transformation and HR, and seconded by Cllr Alex Yip (Con, Sutton Wylde Green), Shadow Cabinet Member for Social Justice, Community, Safety and Equalities.
Cllr Deirdre Alden said of the motion’s defeat:
Once again Birmingham Labour have shown where their true loyalties lie, not with the vulnerable, not with the people of this great city, but with their political brand. Our motion simply asked the council to encourage pensioners to take up what they are rightly owed, to support Age UK’s efforts, and to ask the Chancellor to not risk the lives of pensioners struggling to heat their homes during the coldest period of the year. Labour, both nationally and locally, have made the political choice to attack pensioners because they think they're an easy target.
Cllr Alex Yip added:
Labour’s refusal to back our motion calling for support for some of the most vulnerable residents in the City is deeply disappointing. However, I’m not surprised. Birmingham Labour have already attacked some of the most vulnerable in the City by slashing libraries and day centres, both of which act as warm spaces and are vital services. Indeed the government seem to be replicating Birmingham Labour’s financial incompetence across the entire nation, hammering the vulnerable and the working class.
