James Ford is a public affairs consultant. Between 2010 and 2012 he worked as an aide to then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, advising on transport, environment and digital policy.
Boris Johnson famously quipped that his policy on cake was “pro having it and pro eating it.” It is a relatively simple political philosophy… but rather an unfortunate epithet for a man whose premiership was arguably undone by a surprise birthday cake in lockdown. It seems that Councillor Gavin Callaghan, the Labour leader of Basildon Borough Council, shares Johnson’s philosophy on cake, albeit without either any sense of political irony or shame. Last week, as Labour MPs trooped into the division lobbies to ensure pensioners would shiver this winter, Cllr Callaghan unveiled his own local solution: the Warm Home Guarantee.
As with everything in politics, the devil is in the detail. Those familiar with the Winter Fuel Payment will see the significant flaw in Cllr Callaghan’s political wheeze. The level of the payment – £100 – is half of what pensioners under 80 currently receive (and a meagre third of the £300 that pensioners aged over 80 could claim in Winter Fuel Payment). And, limited to just a thousand lucky recipients, the Warm Home Guarantee is insufficient to help the vast majority of the 27,000 pensioners that call Basildon home.
At best the Warm Home Guarantee could be described as a gimmick and, at worst, a massive insult to Basildon’s pensioners.
But then, the Warm Home Guarantee is not about effective policymaking. It is about brazen politicking…and Cllr Callaghan’s hopes to stay in office. Whilst Labour MPs will not have to face the public again until 2029 at the latest, Labour councillors face a more imminent reckoning: local elections next May (and, indeed, every May until the next general election). There will be elections for Essex County Council next spring, and because Basildon elects its councillors by thirds, borough elections will take place in 2026, 2027, and 2028. Whilst Essex County Council is comfortably Conservative (the party has held the council since 2001 and currently has 51 out of the 70 seats on the authority), Basildon is very marginal. Labour has not had majority control of the borough council since 2000.
Moreover, since 2014 the council has frequently alternated periods of No Overall Control and Conservative majority control. Basildon is technically once again in No Overall Control and Cllr Callaghan is only leader because Labour shares power with six independent councillors. In fact, this is Cllr Callaghan’s third term as leader since 2017 – and he is probably sick and tired of having to pack up his stapler and desk plant and move out of his big spacious office. In different circumstances, we might almost sympathise.
However, Basildon’s pensioners – and the council taxpayers that will be stumping up the cash for the Warm Home Guarantee – will not be the only people who feel betrayed by Cllr Callaghan’s political posturing. His fellow Labour politicians – both nationally and in local government – are unlikely to welcome his efforts.
To date, the Parliamentary Labour Party has remained relatively united in the face of public anger over the introduction of means testing for the Winter Fuel Payment. When the Conservatives secured a vote on the Winter Fuel Payment last week, more than fifty Labour MPs abstained but only one – John Trickett – voted against the Government. Labour MPs who held the party line on this issue are unlikely to thank one of their own council leaders for undermining their position for his own advancement.
Other Labour local government leaders are similarly unlikely to find the Warm Home Guarantee to be helpful to their own efforts to stay in power. Now, when Labour mayors and council leaders try to distance themselves from a Westminster decision, Labour’s opponents can point to Basildon’s example and ask why other authorities are not similarly stepping up. Cllr Callaghan has effectively expanded a central government policy blunder into a local hot potato. Nor is it likely to strengthen local authorities claims to be cash-strapped that Basildon could easily find £100,000 down the back of a sofa to fund its Warm Home Guarantee.
What may have seemed like inspired local leadership at conception may well prove a political liability for Basildon’s beleaguered council leader and Labour more widely. Ironically, as Labour assemble for their party conference in Liverpool, it may well be Cllr Callaghan who finds himself out in the cold. Moreover, he may well learn that the UK rarely allows its politicians to have their cake and eat it.
