Rayner: ‘Can’t guarantee’ winter fuel payments will be on time for this winter
Keir Starmer announced a partial U-turn on the winter fuel payments this week, but the extent of the reversal is not yet clear. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg, Angela Rayner said changes to the cuts would happen ‘as the economic situation improves’, but refused to confirm whether the payments could be restored to all pensioners. When asked if the payments would come through before winter, Rayner said she couldn’t guarantee it, because it ‘has to come through a fiscal event and the chancellor’. Kuenssberg suggested the government’s approach had been ‘cack-handed’. Rayner claimed that the government had been forced to ‘secure the finances’ when they took office, but improvements to the economy have allowed them to make changes. She refused to speculate on when the chancellor might outline the plans more specifically.
Kemi Badenoch: ‘Lots of people will chase polls’
Nigel Farage is expected to appeal to left-wing voters in a speech next week in which he’ll commit to restoring winter fuel payments to all pensioners and scrapping the two-child benefit cap. Labour’s child poverty action plan, which has been delayed until the autumn, is also reported to include proposals to scrap the child benefits cap. On GB News, Kemi Badenoch positioned her party in contrast to Reform UK and Labour, telling Camilla Tominey that the cap was put in place during ‘better economic times’, and arguing that ‘we cannot afford’ to remove it. Badenoch said it was clear that Farage was ‘chasing Labour votes’, and claimed the Tories are the ‘only credible party on the right’. Tominey suggested that Farage had already ‘hoovered up’ the Conservatives’ support base, and that is why Reform are targeting Labour. Badenoch argued that Reform supporters might now wonder what sort of party they are voting for, and said she would ‘do the right thing’, rather than give ‘easy answers’.
Angela Rayner: ‘I do not leak’
A leaked memo showed Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner urging Chancellor Reeves to raise taxes before her Spring Statement. On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked Rayner if she still believed in the proposals she set out in the memo. Rayner refused to ‘comment on a leaked memo’, but said it wasn’t ‘rocket science’ that the cabinet have such discussions when ‘faced with a £22 billion black hole’. Rayner claimed there was no ‘significant difference of opinion’ in the government, but admitted that such leaks are ‘very damaging’, and condemned anyone who leaks ‘piecemeal information’.
Rayner: ‘I don’t want to be leader of the Labour party’
Over on Sky News, Trevor Phillips suggested cynics might think that Rayner leaked the memo herself, as a kind of ‘mini-manifesto’ for a future leadership bid. Rayner refuted the idea, saying she was ‘very happy and honoured’ to be deputy prime minister. She told Phillips she had ‘no desire’ to go for the leadership of the party, and obliged when Phillips asked her to say the word ‘never’.
Badenoch: Israel’s actions in Gaza are ‘not a genocide’
This week Keir Starmer made a joint statement with the leaders of France and Canada saying that Israel’s expanded offensive in Gaza is ‘disproportionate’, and suspended trade talks with Israel. Since then, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu accused Starmer of siding with Hamas, and being ‘on the wrong side of justice’. Netanyahu was speaking after two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead in Washington. On Sky News, Kemi Badenoch said that ‘if Hamas is praising your actions, you’ve probably done something wrong’. Trevor Phillips asked Badenoch if she supported the current Israeli actions in Gaza. Badenoch claimed that Israel is ‘fighting a proxy war on behalf of the UK, just like Ukraine is’. Phillips asked if Badenoch would criticise anything the Israelis are doing. Badenoch said she had criticised them in the past, but there are still 58 hostages held by Hamas, and the government ‘should not be doing anything which is not in the national interest of this country’.
Trevor Phillips: ‘12 points adrift in the polls, that’s where you are!’
And Kemi Badenoch had an awkward moment when Trevor Phillips asked her if it was ‘annoying’ that people kept talking about the return of Boris Johnson. Badenoch said that people have underestimated her since she came back to the UK aged 16 with very little, and told Phillips, ‘look where I am now’. Phillips’ response was inevitable.
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