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Tuesday briefing: The levers Labour might pull to counter a growing threat from Reform
May 6, 2025
In today’s newsletter: Can a partial U-turn on the winter fuel allowance help the party set a new agenda – and keep support for Nigel Farage at bay?
Good morning. After Reform UK’s resounding success in last week’s local elections, Keir Starmer has faced relentless questions over how Labour will change tack to deal with the problem. Now, we may have the beginning of an answer.
On the front page of today’s Guardian, Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report that Downing Street is seriously rethinking the cuts to the winter fuel payment – the policy that above all others summarised Starmer and Rachel Reeves’s shaky start to life in government. While a full reversal is not on the cards, No 10 sources say that the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance could be increased in the autumn.
Until very recently, ministers have insisted that no such change has been contemplated. But as always in politics, nothing changes until it does. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Jessica Elgot about the rationale behind the contemplated change – and whether it represents the start to a new agenda for the government, and a meaningful response to the threat from Nigel Farage. Here are the headlines.
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