(2 months, 3 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberTen years ago, the now Chancellor argued in this House that winter fuel payments should be means-tested and cut for “the richest pensioners”. The Chancellor’s 10-year campaign has now come to fruition and she has proposed removing the winter fuel payment from pensioners on just £13,000 a year. Does she still think that a pensioner on £13,000 a year is rich?
What came to an end in July was 14 years of a Conservative Government who presided over a fall in living standards, the highest tax burden in 70 years, a debt, as a share of our economy, of almost 100%, and a £22 billion black hole in the public finances just this year. What we have not heard from those on the Opposition Front Bench, or indeed from any Conservative Member of Parliament, is an apology for the mess that they have left this country in, which this Government are now picking up.