Labour party press release. When Jeremy Corbyn was actually leading the party the paper never gave him credit for anything, but this morning it is pointing out that during the 2017 general election campaign, after Theresa May included plans to means-test the winter fuel payment in the Conservative party manifesto, Labour released analysis saying this policy could kill 4,000 people.
In their story Martin Beckford and Andrew Pierce say:
Published during the 2017 election campaign, the research said: ‘Since the introduction of the winter fuel payment by Labour in 1997, allowing for significant variation in winter weather, deaths among the elderly have fallen from around 34,000 to 24,000.
Half of the almost 10,000 decrease in so-called ‘excess winter deaths’ – the rise in mortality that occurs each winter – between 2000 and 2012 was due to the introduction of the winter fuel allowance.’
Last night one Labour MP told the Mail: ‘This is blatant hypocrisy. All those now reversing Gordon Brown’s winter fuel allowance were Labour MPs when we fought against Theresa May’s government’s plans to scrap it in 2017.
Asked about the Labour claim from 2017 in her interview on the Today programme, Diana Johnson, a Home Office minister, did not try to challenge the logic of the analysis. Instead she stressed that the government is trying to get more pensioners to claim pension credit and that, as a result of the triple lock, pensioners will get a decent rise in their state pension.
the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime. Idris Elba, the actor who has campaigned on this issue, is among those attending.
according to some estimates. Diana Johnson, a Home Office minister, was doing an interview round this morning (she was meant to be talking about knife crime) and on the Today programme she was asked by Mishal Husain if the government would consider means-testing the winter fuel allowance in a more generous way, allowing more pensioners on low and moderate incomes to keep it. Johnson twice insisted that she was not privy to these discussions, and that it was a matter for the Treasury and the DWP. But when Husain asked her a third time, saying that one idea is for pensioners in council tax bands A to D to carry on getting the winter fuel payment, and another is for a social tariff that would force firms to offer cheaper energy to poor pensioners, Johnson replied:
I am sure across government all these measures are being looked at.
In context, this sounded more like Johnson trying to give a slightly more sophisticated version of the ‘I don’t know’ answer (in theory government is always looking at ideas if people are talking about them). But Johnson’s comment could have been interpreted as implying that ministers are actively planning some sort of U-turn, and within minutes the government briefing machine was in action to say that no concession is on the way. This is from Henry Zeffman, the BBC’s chief political correspondent.
Government sources saying that Home Office minister Diana Johnson misspoke this morning when she said that the Treasury was looking at ways to soften the impact of the winter fuel allowance cut, including a social tariff for energy bills
I will post more from Johnson’s interview round soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Keir Starmer hosts a meeting on knife crime at 4Downing Street.
10am: Ros Altmann, a former Tory pensions minister who is leading attempts in the Lords to block the proposed cut to the winter fuel payment, speaks at a Resolution Foundation conference.
10am: The Covid inquiry module looking at the impact of the pandemic on healthcare opens, with statements from counsel.
11am: Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, speaks at the TUC conference in Brighton.
Lunchtime: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, takes question in the Commons.
4pm: The five Tory leadership candidates still in the contest hold a hustings with MPs in private.
6pm: Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, is due to address Labour MPs in private at the parliamentary Labour party.
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Source: theguardian.com
