That hardly ever happens. A major climbdown was announced in the house of commons at PMQs. Sir Keir Starmer used a scripted question to reveal a massive U-turn on winter fuel payments and he timed his bombshell to give the opposition leader, Kemi Badenoch, very little chance to improvise a reply. Sir Keir’s gamble worked. To deaden the effect of his surrender he used the dullest phrases that his un-lyrical brain can contrive. He said he hoped that ‘more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments. And we will look at that as part of a fiscal event.’ In English he meant he won’t freeze granny to death next December.
Kemi appeared to react fast.
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