Labour MPs warn winter fuel could be Starmer's 'Poll Tax moment' as panic grows over Reform 'working class insurrection'
Labour MPs ramped up their revolt against Keir Starmer over winter fuel and benefits cuts today - warning he faces a Poll Tax moment.
Diane Abbott compared the public backlash to that faced by Margaret Thatcher during a bruising debate in Westminster Hall.
The former frontbencher said Labour's local elections drubbing represented anger 'boiling over', urging Sir Keir to take a 'moral' stance and drop the policies.
Other Labour MPs rowed in to insist they will oppose the welfare reforms when they come before the Commons.
Meanwhile, 'Blue Labour' peer Lord Glasman has urged the government to be more radical, saying Nigel Farage was leading a 'working class insurrection against the progressive ruling class'.
Sir Keir squirmed over the winter fuel allowance at PMQs this afternoon as he was accused of hammering pensioners.
Keir Starmer squirmed over the winter fuel allowance at PMQs this afternoon as he was accused of hammering pensioners
During a bad-tempered PMQs, Kemi Badenoch said the government was 'balancing the books on the backs' of the older generation.
But Sir Keir retorted that only Labour was addressing the 'challenges we face', pointing to the trade deal with India announced yesterday.
Sir Keir is under huge pressure to change direction following the dire performance in the local contests. Labour lost the Runcorn by-election along with nearly 200 councillors as Reform translated its polling into real power.
The Red Wall group of Labour MPs met last night and issued a statement urging Sir Keir to 'rebuild' trust.
The group said that 'responding to the issues raised by our constituents, including on winter fuel, isn't weak'.
The unrest was fuelled today as a poll showed Reform's support hitting a new record high.
The insurgents were on 29 per cent in the latest YouGov poll carried out in the wake of the local elections, up three on last week.
That was seven points ahead of Labour, who were down one. The research found the Tories were on just 17 per cent, the lowest since the end of Theresa May 's leadership.
Speaking during the Westminster Hall debate on disability benefits, Ms Abbott said: 'The country's anger at these cuts boiled over last week in a spectacular fashion with a by-election in Runcorn where Labour lost its 16th safest seat...
'The single most important reason for vote switching was anger at the government cutting winter fuel allowance and welfare cuts like the cuts proposed for PIP. Immigration comes well down the list.'
Ms Abbott demanded to know 'in what universe is slashing benefits for the disabled moral?'
She accused the government of making 'a conscious choice to balance the books on the backs of people on welfare'.
'Some of us are old enough to remember Mrs Thatcher and her poll tax and it was her undoing,' she swiped.
'It is not too late to drop the winter fuel and the cuts to PIP and I plead with my government to do so.'
Fellow Labour MP Rachael Maskell, another strident critic of the cuts, said: 'Colleagues we are better than this...
'I will be voting against these cuts because I am Labour and disabled people matter.'
Backbencher Nadia Whittome said: 'If the government goes through with these disability benefit cuts it will be making a huge mistake which the public will not forgive us for.'
Labour MP Steve Witherden also indicated he is ready to vote against the benefits cuts.
Appearing at a Policy Exchange event in London, Lord Glasman - a Labour thinker with connections to Trumpian factions in the US - said the time of delegating decisions out to supernational bodies had past
Appearing at a Policy Exchange event in London, Lord Glasman - a Labour thinker with connections to Trumpian factions in the US - said the time of delegating decisions out to supernational bodies had past.
He insisted that from the perspective of the White House 'the worst thing you can be is a globaliser'.
'Politics is back. This is the terrifying reality for our ruling class. IS that the people of the country are making their views known extremely clearly, they think there is a better path ahead.'
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