The Labour government completed an embarrassing about-face on its cuts to the winter fuel aid scheme to keep the elderly warm following pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
Embattled Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced on Monday that winter fuel subsidies for pensioners will be restored to all those with an income below £35,000 in England and Wales. This would be an increase from the current cutoff of £11,500, while still refraining from making the programme available to all pensioners.
“We will not go back to the universal system. I don’t think it’s right that the very richest pensioners had their fuel bill subsidised,” Reeves said per the BBC.
The austerity cuts to the programme, which came during the ongoing energy crisis in Europe, had been deeply unpopular, with an estimated ten million people having their benefits cut as a result.
The policy came amid efforts to fill the supposed “black hole” in Britain’s finances allegedly left by the previous Tory government, which was used to justify the cuts and tax raids, including the imposition of inheritance tax on family farms.
This came in contrast to the “pro-growth” agenda touted by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in the lead up to the general election last year.
The move to cut the winter fuel aid allowance was seen as a significant factor in Labour’s defeat in the local English elections in May, which saw Nigel Farage’s Reform UK sweep to a historic victory.
Though Mr Farage has traditionally favoured a small government approach to the economy, he and his party have tacked on issues such as benefits and state intervention as they seek to build a new coalition to take on the Westminster establishment duopoly.
As a part of this, the Brexit leader had vowed to restore the winter fuel aid subsidies for pensioners if Reform wins the next general election.
Commenting on the u-turn from the government, Mr Farage said on Monday: “The Labour government are in a state of absolute blind panic, they’re not quite sure what to do. I think it’s pretty fair to say that Reform are leading now much of their agenda.”
“I kept on saying all but the very wealthiest pensioners should get the winter fuel allowance, particularly as we have the most expensive energy costs in the world, directly as a result of the fanatical embrace by both Conservative and Labour governments of net zero,” he added.
Farage said, therefore, that his party can “claim some credit” for the reversal by the government, saying that Reform had “made the political weather on this one”.
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