Rachel Reeves is fooling nobody with her cruel plan to rob millions of pensioners
Robbing pensioners of their winter fuel allowance is cruel - they deserve better than this, says Esther McVey.
19:29, Wed, Aug 14, 2024 | UPDATED: 10:21, Fri, Aug 16, 2024
Rachel Reeves's cruel and out-of-the-blue decision to rob millions of pensioners of their winter fuel allowance, not least the almost one million people who are eligible for pension credit but don’t claim it, had nothing to do with economics and everything to do with cynical political calculation.
Reeves's claim that this was to plug a £22billion black hole in the national finances is fooling absolutely nobody - especially given that at the same time as announcing this imaginary black hole, she announced inflation-busting pay rises for public sector workers, a huge amount of money in overseas aid for climate change, and scrapped our plans to cut the number of civil servants by 66,000, despite the number of civil servants having risen by 100,000 since 2019. So much for a black hole.
No, this is good old-fashioned pork barrel politics - taking money away from people that she thinks don't vote Labour (pensioners) to hand to people that she thinks does vote Labour (public sector workers) - and millions of pensioners, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet, are being sacrificed in this political strategic game.
By announcing the scrapping of the forthcoming and long-awaited cap on care costs, Rachel Reeves has basically declared political war on pensioners which will be neither forgotten nor forgiven.
What makes it worse is that we have just had a general election where Labour failed to be honest with people about these plans. Indeed, before the election, they actually repeatedly challenged the Conservatives to rule out cutting back on the winter fuel allowance no matter how difficult the public finances became. To do that and then cut it themselves as their first act in government is utterly shameful.
They were elected to government on a false prospectus and people will know that you will never be able to believe a word they ever say again.
Our pensioners deserve better than this. With cynicism in politics running at a record high, it is essential that Labour reverse this decision and restore the winter fuel allowance to all pensioners. The Daily Express has my full support with this campaign to scrap this anti pensioner policy.
