The uproar about the winter fuel payment exposes that Starmer and Reeves are so far removed from ordinary people’s experience that they do not understand that many people living at or near break-even have to budget. Removing a sizeable amount of funds at short notice is going to have a very dramatic effect.

It was widely reported in June that Octopus would repay the treasury £3bn in September resulting from the Bulb.  If Starmer and Reeves had demonstrated the sense we hoped they had they would have used some of this for this year’s winter fuel payment. The payment is a crude way of ensuring that the poorest pensioners receive help, but they could easily have said this year it will be taxed (mitigating the loss to taxpayers of funds paid to those that don‘t need it) and said that they will come forward with a more targeted scheme next year.

For the two of them to demonstrate such a lack of understanding of economics does not bode well for the future.

David Gosney,

Clayhill Close,

Waltham Chase

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