The Guardian – PM faces calls to aid poorest as winter fuel cut approved
The Guardian reports Keir Starmer faces growing pressure from Labour backbenchers to announce measures to help the poorest pensioners after MPs voted to cut winter fuel payments.
A report that Russia has been given new ballistic missiles from Iran also makes the front page. The US and Europe imposed new sanctions on Iran in response to the supply of weapons that the US says Russia could use in Ukraine.
MPs back cuts to winter fuel payments in Commons vote
MPs have voted to remove the winter fuel allowance from all but the poorest pensioners in England and Wales, with a significant number of Labour MPs abstaining.
After a sometimes bad-tempered Commons debate, a Conservative motion to strike down the move was defeated by 348 votes to 228. Just one Labour MP, Jon Trickett, voted for the opposition motion but 52 abstained – at the higher end of predictions.
While it is difficult to know how many of these were active abstainers rather than MPs who had been “paired” with an opposition member for an agreed absence, the high opposition turnout, with just a handful missing from the total 238 active MPs, indicates significant disquiet.
Trickett now risks losing the Labour whip. Also among the rebels were four of the seven Labour MPs who lost the whip for six months after rebelling over the two-child benefit cap in July.
Blinken says Russia has received new ballistic missiles from Iran
Russia has received new deadly ballistic missiles from Iran for use in Ukraine and is likely to use them, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced on Tuesday in London as he prepared to travel with the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, to Kyiv.
The news, confirmed by the US for the first time and seen as of huge significance to the battlefield balance ahead of Ukraine’s difficult winter, led the US and Europe to impose new sanctions on Iran, so apparently slamming the door on the prospect of a rapprochement between the new reformist Iranian government and the west.
The move may also add to the pressure on the US to end its restrictions on Ukraine using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia and not just in occupied parts of Ukraine.
Ukraine, with discreet UK backing, has been pressing for a change in US policy but Blinken, at a press conference in London, highlighted obstacles to backing the Ukrainian request, including doubts about Ukraine’s ability to maintain the missiles, training and their strategic purpose.
Today’s news summary – Paper Talk
If you are someone who reads every perspective of a story, here is a news summary of all of today’s front pages from today’s newspapers; summarised in a 2-minute read
Editorial 11 September 2024.
Wednesday’s front pages feature a few leads with several papers focusing on the early release of prisoners in England and Wales. Many of those papers are traditionally right-leaning and see the early release as a ‘day of shame’ for the country and most feature images of men celebrating their release.
The Commons vote on cutting winter fuel payments is picked up by many other publications. The traditional left-leaning newspapers suggest the public move on from the fuel payments and instead focus on supporting the government in its plans to fix public services.
A few international stories make the broadsheet front pages as US President Joe Biden is reportedly weighing up whether Ukraine can use American long-range missiles in Russia.