Starmer: I had to cut winter fuel allowance to save the NHS
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he had to scrap the winter fuel allowance for 10 million pensioners to find the money to get the NHS back on its feet.
The Prime Minister said he had “every sympathy” with poorer pensioners who would struggle with their bills, and added: “I didn’t want to do it.”
Speaking during a trip to the US, he said the move was vital to “stabilise the economy” and protect pensions from inflation, as well as “ensure the NHS is up and running properly”.
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, announced in July that most pensioners would lose the annual winter fuel payment of up to £300. Only those on pension credit, or other means-tested benefits, will retain it.
Sir Keir added: “I’ve got every sympathy with anyone who is struggling with any of their bills. But the question we’ve got to answer is, how are you going to make up for a £22 billion shortfall this year, which we hadn’t expected to find?
“I didn’t want to do what the last government did, which is pretend it’s not there, kick it down the road, put it in the long grass, or just leave it off the balance books.”
He added: “If we don’t stabilise the economy, we run the risk of inflation, we run the risk of not being able to end the cost of living crisis and that will hit pensions really, really hard.
“Equally, the work we’re doing to ensure the NHS is up and running properly, that transport is running properly is vitally important to pensions. Many, many people say to me their first worry is the state of the NHS.”
NHS ‘must reform or die’
On Thursday, the Prime Minister said that the health service must reform “or die”.
Speaking at an event in London, after a damning report by Lord Darzi found the NHS was “in serious trouble”, Sir Keir said: “The NHS is at a fork in the road and we have a choice about how it should meet those demands.
“Don’t act and leave it to die; raise taxes on working people; or reform to secure its future. Working people can’t afford to pay more – so it is reform or die.”
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The Prime Minister said the controversial cut to the fuel allowance, which sparked a Labour rebellion in the Commons earlier this week, would save up to £1.5 billion, which would be put towards filling the £22 billion black hole.
He also dismissed an impact assessment carried out by the Labour party in 2017 predicting that removing the allowance would lead to almost 4,000 deaths.
The Government has been accused of not releasing a recent impact assessment on the benefit cut but, in the US, Sir Keir again insisted that no new assessment had been carried out.
“The last assessment was many years ago,” he said. “It’s a different assessment, different context.”
Starmer ‘willing to be unpopular’
Sir Keir said he was unfazed by polls showing that the decision had dented his popularity with the public, and denied that tax raids on pensioners were revenge on older generations for voting for Brexit.
He insisted he was willing to “take decisions that aren’t going to be popular” and compared means-testing the allowance to the “series of really difficult decisions” he took to overhaul the Labour party to make it electable again.
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“I’ll be judged when the time comes for the next election as to whether I’ve delivered my promises or not,” he said.
Speaking later in the day, the Prime Minister once more refused to rule out plans to end the single person’s discount for council tax, dubbed the “widow’s tax”, which will affect many older people.
