We know all the anti Labour posts are really just about VAT on school fees!

Whether you have the capacity to recognise it or not, people should be able to express their opinions freely. Reducing the space for debate about political issues is small minded and highly polarising. Not all private school parents are wealthy, not all Labour voters like Keir Starmer. Those affected by any political issue in the news should be free to convey that on any public forum. If this is really about Keir Starmer’s immediate unpopularity (school fees aside) - you should have the bravery to admit it. I for one believe the ‘sausages’ should be freed immediately. I also believe in freedom of the press and people.

I couldn’t care less about VAT on school fees and voted LibDem tactically to get the Tories out.

BUT I am so disappointed about the freebies thing. How can KS stand up to Tory sleaze when he’s taking freebies? Just buy your own clothes. We all do.

I do think lots of rich pensioners shouldn’t get WFA but the cut off should be high rate tax payers. A single pensioner living on 13k should not be the target of a Labour government.

I’d have been impressed had all the Labour MPs offered to give up their fuel expenses as a gesture.

So it’s a poor start to me when they had so much goodwill. The rhetoric sounds good, but the reality, not so much.

The chief issues for fraud are apparently universal credit, and disability ie qualifying benefit. Child benefit is not the issue as I understand it but perhaps someone will correct me on that. I suppose you could claim you had children when you did not, or claim a lower income to escape the tax charge (which is fraud).

Well it’s your choice to apply for benefits or not. But there really ought to be a social contract that you get this money, we get to double check that you haven’t lied on the form. Because a lot of people do, and that’s all of our money that is being stolen. This policy is a great thing.

Your AIBU options don’t work. The last government were pretty awful but I am fairly sure life under Starmer is going to make things MUCH worse for all of us.

A fair amount of people receive payments related to having children, child benefit

Are their bank statements up for scrutiny?

I for one, can’t wait until this VAT policy is in place so we can’t stop reading about it on MN!

The Tory Party proposed to do the same. Same bill. Labour simply agree with them. Legally, if you want to receive benefits then they can easily assert that they can check for fraud. All Labour have done is picked up a ready completed bill from
the Tory Party.

By the Labour membership.

I don't have an issue with Labour being in power, in fact it will probably be to my benefit over the next 10 years. And it was necessary. But I do have an issue with an idiot PM risking the lives of millions of the elderly, as do a lot of decent Labour members.

I’ve not got kids at school but I’m disappointed with the sleazy freebie grabbing behaviour that they are showing. People wanted an end to Tory sleaze - just because it’s not billions being siphoned, it doesn’t make it ok

You've won me over with your intelligence and reasoning. You're right, there should be no limits on the state prying into your private life.

VAT on school fees is of no consequence whatsoever for me. The British public is rightfully extremely angry with the Labour Party. Starmer has shown himself to be a weak, spineless leader in his first few months of office. Their conference has ended in a humiliating defeat for him and he demonstrated what a blundering buffoon he is with his 'sausages' gaffe last night. What an utter shambles.

'Private Parents' frothing at the mouth????
No frothing here where I live. Bit of an over generalisation saying they'd rather have more years of Tories 'destroying public services'.
How many did you survey?

Idk about any of this, someone else might answer

It's a decent question

Please explain. What is the importance of privacy? You want your right to privacy to trump the right of the state to protect the public purse, but you want state benefits? Sod off!

I'm not a Labour voters, and I'm resevering judgement on how the part will perform they have only been in power a couple of months
It does amuse me however that Keir waa constantly whinging and moaning about the Conservative, its easy ,to do when your in the opposition ,the boots on the other foot now.

Please think more broadly than this. People can work for years earning not much but meeting the required years for a state pension

And no they don't all have families to help them out, of course they don't. That is a very limited view

You dodged the question earlier but why did Labour point out 4000 deaths in 2017 and refuse to do an impact assessment today?

The clue was in the 'wealthy pensioners' part of your sentence....it's not being removed for the poorest.

Means tested benefits or all benefits? I’ve made an application for DLA for my infant son, it’s not means tested and I’d appalled if they used it to access my bank account. They aren’t going to uncover any fraud relating to his disability by snooping on my current account.

No, look again.
The 100k is since 2019. I still think it’s an unforced error, but it’s really not a scandal.
Edit: Johnson took massively more but isn’t listed because he’s no longer an MP

Surely they ought to have planned for their retirement? There must be very few pensioners in this situation that don’t have families that can help them out. I certainly would find my relatives in this situation.

This 👏

I shouldn't have to explain to someone about the importance of privacy. If you don't believe in privacy and think the state should be able to snoop on you without intervention, then there's nothing further to say.

This fees thing has really left some private parents frothing at the mouth! They’d rather have more years of Tories destroying public services than pay their tax or, heaven forbid, send their child to an ordinary school.

The bank account watching is only for benefits claimants isn't it?