‘You can’t do everything at same time’ says minister as Labour under pressure
Sir Keir Starmer has been facing calls to u-turn on his decision to strip winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners.
A Cabinet minister has said that “you can’t do everything at the same time” as Labour came under pressure to reverse its fortunes after Reform UK’s success in the local elections.
Jonathan Reynolds has said ministers “want to go faster” on implementing changes after a group of MPs across former Labour heartlands said Sir Keir Starmer has to “break the disconnect” between Labour and the Red Wall.
The Business Secretary told Good Morning Britain that he understands “where people are coming from” and has heard concerns from his own constituents.
The Prime Minister has been facing calls to u-turn on his decision to strip winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners in the wake of last week’s election losses.
Mr Reynolds said: “You’ve got to be clear, sometimes you can’t do everything at the same time, sometimes there are difficult decisions, and means-testing winter fuel payments to the people who need it most, making sure every pensioner is better-off by having the triple lock in place, I think is the right decision between those two key policy areas.”
In last week’s contests Labour lost the previously safe Runcorn and Helsby constituency in a by-election and almost 200 councillors as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK made sweeping gains.
Mr Reynolds told the ITV programme: “We want to go faster, and we will, but we understand where people are coming from and I say again, those were a tough set of election results, I’m not shying away from that at all.”
Downing Street said on Tuesday “there will not be a change to the Government’s policy” on winter fuel after Welsh First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan was among those calling for a “rethink”.
The decision last July to restrict the winter fuel payment to the poorest pensioners was intended to save around £1.5 billion a year, with more than nine million people who would have previously been eligible losing out.
Meanwhile, the Red Wall Labour group told the Prime Minister that “responding to the issues raised by our constituents, including on winter fuel, isn’t weak, it takes us to a position of strength”.
They called on the Government to “break away from Treasury orthodoxy otherwise we will never get the investment we desperately need”.
It comes as new YouGov data suggests Labour are polling at their lowest level since the era of Jeremy Corbyn.
The latest voting intention figures show Reform on 29%, with Labour lagging behind on 22% and the Conservatives on 17%.
According to YouGov, this is the lowest the party has polled since October 2019 under Mr Corbyn, as Mr Farage’s party continue to out-poll the Government.
