Following the General Election result in July, many of us were given a new sense of cautious optimism about our country.

There was little enthusiasm for the Labour Party, but the vast majority of people I spoke to were keen to see the back of the tired Tory government, who had conspicuously failed to deal with our nation’s problems.

Now I wasn’t expecting the new government to do and achieve everything I wanted - after all I am a Liberal Democrat, not a member of the Labour Party - but I am shocked, and incredibly disappointed, by the start they have made.

We were promised change, but I am yet to see much. The government seems to be bereft of fresh ideas, and it looks as though the country is entering austerity 2.0. But even the Conservatives at their most heartless drew the line at snatching money away from vulnerable pensioners by cutting the winter fuel payment for those not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits.

Luke Cawley-Harrison is disappointed by the start the Labour Government has madeLuke Cawley-Harrison is disappointed by the start the Labour Government has made (Image: D Tothill2018) Imagine yourself, a relative, a friend: receiving less than £12,000 per year (someone working full time on the minimum wage gets £20,000 per year), just above the threshold for pension credit.

Having made it through the isolation of the Covid pandemic, and struggled to make ends meet during the cost-of-living crisis, you have budgeted on receiving £200 to help make it through the winter.

With energy costs still sky high, you’d probably already accept that the heating won’t be on as much as you want. And now, with just a few weeks notice, that lifeline has been snatched away.

How Labour can justify this is beyond me. Are cold pensioners now classed as the ‘mega rich’ the Government said would be paying for the promises they made? Labour said they would protect ‘working people’, but now we see the hollowness of that promise.

Is someone who worked their whole life, and who now is only just managing, the person who should be penalised?

There are also rumours that the Government wants to remove the single-person council tax discount - which would not only be grossly unfair, but would hit many of these same pensioners again.

I can only hope that the Labour Party will junk these unfair plans, but who knows if they will. Otherwise we will all be left asking: whose side is this new government really on?

  • Luke Cawley-Harrison is councillor for Crouch End ward, Haringey Council and leader of the Liberal Democrat Group.