A cabinet minister seems to have rowed back from her colleague’s claim that cutting winter fuel payments prevented there being a “run on the pound”.
The leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, told broadcasters on Sunday that the government is restricting winter fuel payments to just the poorest pensioners because the UK’s deficit and spending was higher than previously assumed.
She added: “If we hadn’t taken this action, we would have seen a run on the pound, the economy crashing, and the people who pay the heaviest price for that are the poorest and people on fixed incomes.”
But when asked about Powell’s comments on BBC Breakfast the following day, the education secretary Bridget Phillipson seemed to tread very carefully.
She said: “What is clear, is if we had not got to grips with the public finances overall, there could have been serious consequences for the economy.”
She pointed to Liz Truss’s infamous mini-Budget, and said there was a “reckless and cavalier” approach to the British economy under the Tories.
“It is important that we fix the foundations and we get a grip on the economy, but none of us wanted to be making these kinds of choices especially when it comes to the winter fuel allowance,” Phillipson said.
So BBC Breakfast host Sally Nugent asked: “Do you think, if you hadn’t taken that decision to cut winter fuel allowances, there would have been a run on the pound?”
Phillipson said: “I think that had the chancellor not taken decisive action to get a grip on the public finances overall, there could have been really dangerous consequences for people across the country.”
Nugent pushed: “You sound to me like you are not entirely agreeing with your cabinet colleague Lucy Powell.”
“My understanding is that Lucy was making a wider point about the need to get the public finances under control,” the cabinet minister said.
The BBC Breakfast host then asked: “The decision to cut winter fuel payments have proven to be hugely unpopular.
“Is there any possibility you might be looking at that decision again?”
The minister said she understood how it was unpopular, but that they had to do it because of the £22bn black hole left behind by the Tories.
“But it is always a choice, isn’t it? You choose where that money comes from,” Nugent pushed.
“Yes, and the public finances are in such a dire state that we have had to make tough choices about that,” Phillipson said.
When Nugent said the Conservatives are claiming they left a “growing economy” for Labour, the minister said: “I think your viewers will know just how bad things have been in recent years, they will know the shape of the economy and they will know the action needed to get things back in control.
“I don’t think the Conservatives have anything to be crowing about here.”