Ed Miliband has insisted Labour is not going to say sorry for cutting winter fuel payments, as the Chancellor doubles down and says her decision was “right”. Speaking on Times Radio this morning, the energy secretary bullishly said: “We’re not going to apologise for the actions we took to stabilise the economy.
“That’s what happened last year. The chancellor came into office, saw a massive black hole in the nation’s finances. She took a whole series of measures. Now, what’s happened since then is two things. One, we have stabilised the public finances and secondly, we’ve listened to people.”
He insisted that the government hasn’t u-turned on its principles “that the winter fuel allowance should be means tested”, but that they have listened to criticism on the threshold.
Mr Miliband concluded: “We have listened and we’ve changed the policy.”
He also claimed that having spoken to voters on the doorstep, not a single person has demanded an apology from him or the government over the cuts.
It came as Ms Reeves insisted that her initial cut down to a cut off of just £11,500 a year was the “right decision”.
Ms Reeves insisted: “Targeting winter fuel payments was a tough decision, but the right decision because of the inheritance we had been left by the previous government.”
“It is also right that we continue to means test this payment so that it is targeted and fair, rather than restoring eligibility to everyone including the wealthiest.”
Mr Miliband also told Times Radio that he’s “really confident” that the Chancellor will “find a fair way” to fund the u-turn.
It confirms that the Government has not yet worked out how it will fund the u-turn, which is set to cost over £1 billion.
Mr Miliband claimed that Rachel Reeves has proved herself as “absolutely fiscally responsible” over the last 11 months, despite an enormous increase in government borrowing.
He added: “Rachel Reeves has taken a whole series of decisions to stabilise the public finances. And I think she deserves credit for having done so.”
The Treasury insisted that the u-turn would not lead to a “permanent rise in borrowing”, however this was shot down by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Director Paul Johnson said: “It wouldn’t even be in the top 100 of things that I would do with my £1.25bn if I wanted to act on poverty.
“Almost none of the people impacted by this will be in poverty. Most of them will be at least as well-off as the average in the population. We know that poverty is much worse among families with children than it is with pensioners.”
He added that the u-turn will mean “permanent additional taxes”.