Tory leader Kemi Badenoch did not give a straight answer after being repeatedly asked if she would reverse the Government’s decision to means test winter fuel payments
Kemi Badenoch was tied in knots as she was interrogated about what she would do about winter fuel payments if she was in power.
The Tory leader was repeatedly asked if she would reverse the Government’s decision to means test winter fuel payments, which has led to the help being slashed for millions of pensioners. Keir Starmer earlier this week said he would U-turn on Labour’s decision to ensure more pensioners would be eligible for the help.
In a BBC Breakfast interview, Ms Badenoch claimed she could not commit to reversing the policy. But she indicated she would keep means testing it in some way to make sure millionaire pensioners could not access the £300 payments.
Asked by BBC host Naga Munchetty what her specific views were on the winter fuel cuts, Ms Badenoch refused to give a straight answer because there are “difficulties” in changing a policy once it’s brought in. Yet she committed to reversing other Labour tax policies, such as making farmers pay inheritance tax, despite them having been brought in.
READ MORE: Martin Lewis reveals reason worried people are ‘flooding’ his inbox
She said: “Every time a government makes a change, you don’t know whether you can go back to exactly where you were before. And this is one of the difficulties. So I can’t just say, ‘Oh, I’ll reverse every single thing they’ve done.’ There are some things that I know I will reverse: the family farms tax, all the taxes on family businesses, agriculture.'”
Naga told her: “What I’m not hearing from you is a suggestion. I’m hearing that there are problems all around and everything needs to be looked at. I’m not hearing from you a constructive suggestion as to what you would do.”
Ms Badenoch scrambled to say Labour needed to “look at welfare, where we are spending so much”. This is despite ministers already having targeted the welfare budget with £5billion in cuts.
She also criticised government borrowing figures, adding: “The whole economy is topsy turvy. So we need to look at all of it in the round. But we should not do this on the backs of vulnerable pensioners.”
Naga hit back: “All I’ve heard is you haven’t got a solution.” Ms Badenoch said: “We wouldn’t have made this mess in the first place.”
Elsewhere Ms Badenoch was challenged after saying the former Tory government felt winter fuel payments “was something that we should leave alone” after she said changes should be made so millionaires didn’t get the allowance. She was pressed why she didn’t take action when she was in Government.
Ms Badenoch said she made the demand for millionaires to excluded in a speech in 2022, when the Tories were still in power, adding: “But when you’re making changes, you have to do it carefully. You have to think through the consequences.”
Mr Starmer said earlier this week he would U-turn on his controversial winter fuel cuts to ensure more eligible pensioners could get the payment. The PM has been facing mounting pressure over the decision and was punished at the ballot box at the local elections over the choice.
On Friday Labour’s Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan said Mr Starmer should provide winter fuel payments to the “majority” of pensioners after the major U-turn. She urged the government to rethink the cuts to millions of retirees, welcoming the PM’s reversal.
But the government is yet to set out how many more pensioners will be eligible for the payment of up to £300 this winter. Ms Morgan said she wanted the “majority of pensioners” to now get the benefit.
She added: “I’m not sure if millionaires should be getting a winter fuel allowance. So let’s just make sure that they don’t get it.” Speaking to the BBC, the Welsh First Minister also said she would “stick” to the left of UK Labour also said she was concerned about the Prime Minister’s comments on immigration.
READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster