The Government has “comprehensively lost the argument” on axing winter fuel payments for pensioners, Shadow Treasury Minister Laura Trott has said.
She told GB News: “What happened last night was that the Labour government won the vote, but they comprehensively lost the argument.
“This is something which has been long planned, they put protection of winter fuel payments in their manifestos in 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, but not last time around.
“They failed to give pensioners notice that this was happening and it's the wrong decision. It's cruel, and it's going to leave pensioners cold this winter.”
Trott added: “Myself and Jeremy [Hunt] have been fighting tooth and nail on this ridiculous black hole narrative that they put out.
“Polling shows now that actually the majority of people don't believe what the Labor government are saying, and nor should they.
“On winter fuel payment, you've seen the huge surge of support we've had for the opposition we've got to this policy, and that's really important, because this policy, if they implement it and they get all the people signed up to pension credit that they want to, it won't even save any money.
“It's completely preposterous. It's wrong, and we think they should U-turn on it.
“Politics is about choices. What they have chosen to do is to give train drivers inflation busting pay increases. They have chosen to spend all of £9 billion pounds on increases to public sector wages, rather than protecting pensioners this winter.
“They have prioritised this deliberately and the British public know that.
“I think they need to start taking accountability now. Government means compromises. It means difficult decisions, and it means making the argument for those, it's simply not good enough to just turn around and say, ‘oh, we were forced to do that’. That's nonsense.
“Everyone has a choice. Everyone has to make decisions in government, and what they have done is they have prioritised paying their union paymasters over supporting pensioners this winter, and the British public will see right through that.”
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