Abstention and absence

Only one Labour MP defied the government's three-line whip to vote against the means testing of pensioners' winter fuel payment but fifty-one others abstained or were 'absent'.

Sir Keir Starmer at least had a valid excuse; he was speaking at the TUC's annual congress in Brighton, where he received a polite but hardly rapturous welcome. The lone brave Labour soul who voted against his own government was Jon Trickett, veteran MP for Normanton and Hemsworth since 1996. As for the absentees, it appears to have been a busy day for dental and GP appointments.

But, really, what a shameful and farcical day it was in the House of Commons yesterday, and what a shocking waste of precious parliamentary time. From the general election on 4th July the House sat until the 31st and then went on summer recess for the whole month of August. It is off again on Friday until 7th October for party conference season. Perhaps when it gets back the government will finally settle down to some serious work repairing the damage of the past fourteen years of Tory misrule and spare us the performative nonsense that has characterised the few weeks that the House has actually sat.

We got it the first time round when Rachel Reeves (deservedly) put the boot into Jeremy Hunt before the summer recess. We undersood that she had found a black hole in the books and was very cross about it. We also knew whose fault it was, that's why we voted Labour. Now, though, they should move on and do what we elected them to do - get it sorted. 

But summer's over and they're at it again, banging on about the bloody £22bn black hole. The problem is that the Tories can now come back with a firm rebuttal: "Labour told you those with the broadest shoulders should carry the burden and instead they've gone after some of the most vulnerable in our society".

Means testing of fuel allowance was being considered by the Tories too but Labour's unfathomable decision to do it at this point has put them on the backfoot at the very start of their new government. It has gifted the Tories a stick to beat them with for years to come and also provided a demoralised Tory party with a cause to unite around. It will be an issue the new Tory Leader, once elected, can seize on to rally support, both in the party and country. The Tory ship was sinking but this has thrown them a lifeline while Labour's is holed below the waterline before it has even set sail.

To pursue the nautical analogy, at PMQs today Keir Starmer clung to the 'black hole' defence as a drowning man to a life raft. Far from being cowed, the official opposition was clearly buoyed by Labour's flailing attempts to defend a fatal error of judgment. They will go into the conference recess with a spring in their step, re-energised by Labour's discomfiture . We can be sure their new Tory leader, when he or she finally takes up the position, will use this issue to distract from internal party disunity, always bubbling just below the surface.

The Tories are probably now wishing they had gone for a quicker leadership contest so they could have had a new leader in place when the Commons reconvenes on 7th October to capitalise on Labour's disarray. As it is, they will have to wait until the result of the final vote on 2nd November. 

For his part, Keir Starmer needs to take stock during the recess and come up with a new strategy. He should stop banging on about the black hole inherited from the Tories. They are yesterday's story. What we need from Labour is a positive narrative about how they will fix things. Rachel Reeves' first budget on 30th October must provide the route map for that.

It will have to do a lot of heavy lifting.

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