LIVERPOOL, Sept 24: Three months into power in Britain, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer is already having to deal with criticism from within his own party.
In the corridors of Labour's annual gathering in Liverpool, northwest England, the mood is far from celebratory despite the party's thumping election win in July.
"We were all full of optimism. (But) some of the decisions the government has made, it took us back a bit," one Labour member and veteran of party conferences, 75-year-old George Cumiskey, told AFP.
Jenny Ward, a 76-year-old activist, was unhappy with the government's decision to eliminate winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners, a move justified by Starmer as necessary to help fix the public finances.
"It's not what our party is like," she said.
Mark, a 64-year-old former transport worker, was more sympathetic.
"They are in a tough place. They are doing the right thing in taking difficult decisions," he told AFP. —AFP
