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Who’s doing comms for the Tories these days? With pretty much an open goal to chastise Labour and the cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, the opposition appear to have fudged it, by choosing a set of apparently ‘well-off’ pensioners – and one with a Rolex – to make their point.
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Payments to subside winter fuel costs for pensioners will now be means tested. Millions of claimants are now no longer eligible for the grant. There will be many people left worse-off, and facing difficult choices as a result of this Labour policy. It’s not a hard point to make.
However, the Tories seem to have completely undermined their own message. Rather than interviewing pensioners who appear to be genuinely hard done-by, they casted senior citizens with all sorts of luxury items.
Expensive lamps, top-name coffee machines, and even a piano can been seen in the homes. The magnum opus of this highly-criticised clip, however, comes from a gentleman who expresses concern about paying his bills – while also wearing a Rolex.
Those interviewed lambast Labour, with one saying that she ‘will not forget’ this decision when the next election rolls round. However, their grievances are somewhat tempered by the size of the homes featured, and the goods on show.
The decision to means test the Winter Fuel Allowance has proved to be an unpopular one for Keir Starmer and his colleagues. Government’s top brass argue that the cuts can save over £1 billion each year. However, it has opened them up to criticism across the board.
Labour’s first budget since returning to power is due at the end of October. It is feared that more cuts, and a lighter version of austerity is on the cards. Chancellor Rachel Reeves, however, has categorically denied that the measures she’ll be taking will be classed as austerity.
