In a gaffe-prone conference speech, Keir Starmer called for the return of “sausages” from Gaza and suggested he had to cut pensioners’ winter fuel allowance or “risk” a Liz Truss-style market meltdown.
Keir Starmer claimed keeping winter fuel payments in place could have sparked a Liz Truss-style meltdown on markets as he launched a bid to reboot his fledgling premiership today.
The PM acknowledged fury at the decision to strip the benefit from 10 million pensioners – but said he could not “risk” showing the world “as the Tories did that this country does not fund its policies properly”. …
Ahead of a showdown vote on winter fuel with unions tomorrow, Sir Keir told the hall that there would be “no return to Tory austerity” and he would “protect working people”.
“If you can’t take that on faith, perhaps because you’re concerned about the winter fuel allowance, then I get that,” he said. “But the risk of showing to the world – as the Tories did, that this country does not fund its policies properly… that is a risk we can never take again.”
At one point Starmer mixed up his words and called for a return of “sausages” instead of Israeli hostages.
I call again for restraint and de-escalation between Lebanon and Israel. I call again for all parties to pull back from the brink.
I call again for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the return of the sausages… the hostages, and a recommitment to the two-state solution, a recognised Palestine and a safe and secure Israel.
The sausages were just an unfortunate bodge, of course. But the claim that he had to cut the pensioners’ fuel allowance to avoid a market meltdown is plainly disingenuous – even Starmer can’t seriously believe the markets were perched ready to throttle the U.K. had Labour failed to make that £1.4 billion cut, particularly in light of the huge spending commitments implied by the bumper public sector pay rises being handed out at the same time. Starmer will be pilloried for offering such a flimsy rationale for his unpopular policy, and deservedly so.
Stop Press: Allison Pearson, who’s just returned from Israel, says in the Telegraph that the reason Starmer said “sausages” instead of “hostages” is because he doesn’t care about them.
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