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Help the poor, Darling warns energy giants
Joe Murphy and Dick Murray09.09.08
Alistair Darling today accused the big energy firms of doing too little to help to the poor.
A week ago after the fuel companies rebuffed government pressure on them to give £100 heating vouchers to needy people, the Chancellor was using a speech to the TUC to say: "Energy companies must face their responsibilities to help people in this difficult period. So we'll do more. And they must do more."
His Brighton speech, a draft of which has been seen by the Standard, was designed to please the trade unions, who are putting intense pressure on the Government to impose a windfall tax on the energy sector.
Replying to their demands, Mr Darling was expected to say he "is listening" but neither ruling it in or out. However, he is said to be cool on the idea.
On Thursday, Gordon Brown is due to launch the delayed fuel policy package, which was watered down after the energy firms refused to dig deeper into their pockets. "No-one should go cold this winter," he said.
The Prime Minister and Chancellor will tonight sit down at a private dinner with leaders of the biggest unions hoping for more money to bale Labour out of a financial crisis. With donations from millionaire backers largely dried up after the "cash for peerages" affair, Labour now relies on union money for £9 out of every £10 it spends.
However they faced anger over the Government's two per cent pay ceiling on public sector workers. One union leader said: "I don't think the hotel will dare put out big bowls of bread rolls."
Mr Darling stood firm on pay in this speech, saying in the draft version: "Everyone in the country, in this hall, knows these are tough times. But familiesand businesses would face even tougher times in the future if we throw away the stability that we have worked so hard to secure."
He went on: "In the private and public sectors, pay rises must be consistent with achieving our inflation target. Otherwise every penny in pay rises will be very quickly swallowed up by higher prices. We all remember the jobs losses that followed in the past once inflation takes a grip."
Losing a grip on economic stability would also put at risk money for investment in jobs, schools and hospitals, he said.
Mr Brown pleased union activists before tonight's dinner by promising more help for the poor. In an article for The Monitor, he declared: "We need to be honest with ourselves: while poverty has been reduced and the rise in inequality halted, social mobility has not improved in Britain as we would have wanted.
"A child's social class background at birth is still the best predictor of how well he or she will do at school and later on in life. Our ambitions for a fairer Britain cannot be satisfied in the face of these injustices."
Among the union leaders at tonight's dinner will be Unite's Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley and Mark Serwotka.
Mr Serwotka, of the Public and Commercial Services union, said: "The Government must start listening and acting. There are a lot of angry people here."
Keith Sonnet, deputy general secretary of Unison, which has 1.3 million members, said: "We want more flexibility over public sector pay and what he is going to do about the economy, for instance a windfall tax on the private utility companies which are making such huge profits."
Reader views (15)
Most labour mps send their children to private schools.
Enough said about this lot of socialist cretins.
The minimum wage has now become the standard wage.
Big deal!
- Frederick, London
Please tell Mr. Darling that the energy companies ARE helping the poor. Drilling and producing more oil helps provide the energy that keeps the economy going. An oil well on the off shore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico cost around $100,000,000 each. Onshore directional drilling wells cost between $5 to 10 million. Oil reservoirs have become smaller, deeper, and harder to find and produce. If you want to have a viable economy, for the poor, the middle and the well to do, we have to have fuel. The oil will someday run out, and we need to be working on alternatives, but that will take time and creativity. In the meantime we have to keep the economies healthy. Ken-Indianapolis
- Ken, Indianapolis USA
Time for the Government to stop blaming the energy companies, and anybody else they can think of,for failing the poor and own up. They have failed the poor and the population at large; the government that is supposed to look after the country's interests, but half of its members are too bogged down in trying to save Gordon Brown's hide while the other half are trying to sink him. What a shambolic lot they are.
- James Elliott, Eastbourne UK
It's not the job of the Energy Companies to 'help the poor' - that's the government's job. The only way the Energy Companies can 'help the poor' is to make those not classified as #poor' to pay more!
More unbelievable RUBBISH from Alistair Darling.
- David, East Grinstead
The way forward for Mr Darling to to raise the threshold for wich we pay tax.Lift it to 10,000 pounds the the poor wont have to give Mr Darling 100 pounds a month.Next he shouls put a cap on all energy companies for two years.then he should fix MP.s pay to the same percentage rate as the public sector
- Dave Smith, Croydon
Sure we all know that we are all in tough times Darling. But who caused it with his reckless spending of the past 10 years?
- Albert Hall, Hove England
here's an idea for darling, reduce the tax on the low paid.
- Stephen Burgwin, birmingham, uk
Surely the Unions just need to ask a few frank questions:
1. Are politicians and union workers all public sector employees?
2. What % pay award did politicians receive?
3. Why can the rest of the public workforce not receive the same?
If the government wants to be taken seriously it has to create an even playing field for all public sector workers. Nice tan on Darling. Maybe the unions should also ask for the whole of August off like the MPs give themselves.
- Ag, The Village of London
Why, of why do Mr Brown, Darling and their like take the voters for complete idiots. It's one rule for them and another for everybody else. How can they have the cheek to face anyone when they reward themselves with with their large pay rises and allowances and expect the rest of us to grin and bear it until we're 70 with below inflation pay rises. How can they look themselves in the mirror every morning and just carry on treating us as fools. There was a time when politicians were respected, but not any more. Respect (like pay hikes and perks) has to be earned. What planet are these people on?
- Ken Joralemon, London, UK
The continuance of Brown as PM is the biggest problem. The British need an emotional lift, what with the stock market collapsing and daylight reducing. Brown's resignation would be such a positive sign that change is in the air!!
- Phil Jones, London UK
I am 100% supporting the unions. Who do these politicians think they are? I say we all go down Downing Street and throw Brown and Darling out. They work for us and personally, I don't want them representing me!
- Aria, South London
Darling left to pick up the pieces from cretin Brown all the while puppet Darling is dancing to his tune.
The union is just as bad in some respect. Nothing wrong with a fair wage, but lets not forget some civil servants are well paid and with gold plated pensions too. The unions have Brown over a barrel. Blair and Brown are the real cause of today's mess. Darling is merely a puppet.
Quite simple. Stop the donations to Labour and let them crash, but of course the union won't do this knowing they can pull strings. In another words its just a bribe.
We can all see the unions getting away with their demands which will likely not be published in the public domain. Brown will sneak things through without letting the us know as he always done.
- Alec, West London
So Bottler Brown won't be facing, or speaking directly to, his comarade [Union] Barons, or 'brothers and sisters' at the TUC Conference assembly then?
Spineless.
- Dave, cumbria
I wish to point out to politicians, that they have awarded themselves the most generous of pay and benefit systems over the last few years including an expense account that even the top most executives of multinational companies have not had the wit to dream of.
As a worker, my pension has been stolen/whittled down so far that I anticipate HAVING to work in to my 70s. My cost of living, let alone even travelling to work has gone through the roof. And I of course have no chance of getting even a small expense account.
It is time for a change...! or in East London Speak... Its MY Turn.
There is always option two: The 5th of November is not far away....! Anyone know where to buy some gunpowder?
- Dene Wood, Grays, Essex, That little country by the sea that used to have
Let's get this right, they want to cap public sector pay rises to 2% and are preaching pay restraint to the private sector ... but are quite happy awarding themselves massive pay rises, gold-plated pensions and are shamelessly pigging out on personal allowances to cover their own travel and living expenses ... and expect everyone to take them seriously?
- John, London, UK
