To think incompetent hypocrite Starmer has lost the respect of the people and his own party in record time?

[TealTraybake]

An excoriating letter from Rosie Duffield who resigned today..

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rosie-duffield-resignation-letter-starmer-labour-b2620603.html#comments-area

Been bad enough for her to resign, I wonder what will happen next. Does she know something we don’t?

Absolutely right. They hate it when the tables are turned 😂. Tough.

It could have been set at the same level as the personal allowance for income tax. No forms necessary and the data is readily available.

So they'd get it even if they had ten million pounds in savings? What if they didn't do a tax return or didn't have a PAYE identity because they were living off savings? You may think it's simple ...

Everyone has a PAYE identity, it’s linked to your national insurance number. The vast majority of pensioners who wouldn’t be entitled to WFA are those with private pensions. How likely is it that someone has £10 million in savings and no taxable income?

Indeed…and outside an ISA savings interest income on much over £250k would mean you should probably do a tax return anyway as the interest is likely to exceed then annual allowance. It was much simpler when all interest income had tax deducted at source unless you applied for it to be paid gross, which then put you on HMRCs radar. Though I assume they still get the info from banks anyway?

Technically not everyone has a PAYÉ identity against which a tax code can be applied, which is why savings interest requires a tax return. But everyone should have UTR, tied to their NI number. If there are people (I am sure there are) that have income that they don’t declare to HMRC then they can’t expect to get the benefits of the welfare state IMO!!

Nevertheless, at the level set for withdrawal of the WFA, a million more people will be pushed into fuel poverty so a little more thought as to the impact and mitigating it would have been good. Charities in the sector are flat out at the moment dealing with worried pensioners.

Just sorry I voted for Labour. The greed is staggering as is the hypocrisy. Rosie Duffield's letter says it all. Brave and principled woman.

So you'd go back to voting Tory (if that's who you voted before, apologies if not) and cutting maternity pay, resurrecting the Rwanda scheme and joining Russia and Belarus as the only European countries outside the ECHR? Oh and suggesting the SAS deal with terrorism through extrajudicial killings.....that's what the Tory leadership hopefuls are proposing at the moment.

Surely if you voted Labour just a few months ago you understood just how much the Tories fucked up the economy, and were outraged by the industrial-level corruption of covid contracts to mates, and the illegality of Partygate. Sure the clothes from a friend is not a good look, but it's not illegal and has been declared, and is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions wasted during Covid of our taxpayers' cash, however much of a deal the rightwing press tries to make of it.
Rosie Duffield is eloquent, but is no friend of the Labour leadership.

"The pensioners have done very well under previous Govts to date and have hardly ever had to face the sort of cuts and austerity measures that all other demographics have had to. Now a huge fuss over a couple hundred quid that even the wealthiest boomer has been getting for years!"

Thats not true. The 70's were difficult times, everyone for themselves in the 80's - no minimum wage, the 90's had a massive crash, interest rates were sky high. Really hard to claim any benefits and they were much stricter with paperwork so the poor we're properly shafted.
Anything boomers have will have been worked for. Some won't need it but it would be easier and cheaper to set up something for people to opt out if they wanted to.

Yep, I’ve got terrible buyer’s remorse too.

but it would be easier and cheaper to set up something for people to opt out if they wanted to.

Can you see that happening because I can’t.

Yes, she's got lots of principles; always a spare set for when the original ones don't work out.

Well this is a start.....nowhere near enough but a start. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/oct/02/keir-starmer-pays-back-6000-worth-of-gifts-and-hospitality

Yep. I agree. I’ve always thought means testing is a race to the bottom - it’s expensive to administer, the cut off has to come somewhere and there will always be those in genuine need who just miss it and lose out big time as a result. So some pensioners may not need the WFA, but in my view that’s something to be taken in stride when the amounts we’re talking about are relatively small. From the posting over on Gransnet it would seem that many of the more well off pensioners give their allowance to charity, so I think many people are going to lose out because of means testing.

But it's okay for you to call individuals "rabid Labour supporters"? Really? Pots and kettles come to mind.

To be fair that poster was rude to quite a few posters and was deleted a number of times for personal attack.

That poster was deleted for pretty aggressive attacks. The only time I've been sworn at on here is by Labour supporters when I've criticised 1 of their policies. There is certainly a vocal minority of Labour supporters on here who simply can not stand anyone questioning Labour and will viciously attack anyone who does so.

True

That doesn't justify references to 'rabid Labour supporters'. It goes both ways.

It definitely goes both ways. Have your posts never criticised posters who don't agree with your views on VAT? I think they have.

Raynors Ibiza trip was a gift freebie allegedly.

Even The Express isn’t saying that. Apparently she spent one evening in a prestigious nightclub frequented by celebrities on a complimentary ticket. Don’t you think this is getting a bit ridiculous now?

Link, please?

Why are Labour MPs accepting freebies at all? Wasn't their USP being different to the Tories?

😂 £6k back only? Sure he owes loads more ….

He doesn’t “owe” anything. He’s accepted donations that have now been returned.