LICHFIELD’S MP says the Labour government will not “bury its head in the sand like the Tories did” when it comes to the nation’s finances.
Dave Robertson’s comments came ahead of a vote on potential changes to the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners.
Proposals could see only those claiming pension credits be eligible for the support in future – a move which could reduce the numbers receiving the funding by around 10million.
Former Conservative MP for Lichfield Michael Fabricant said pensioners would be “anxiously watching” to see how their elected representatives will vote next week. He added:
“I shall be particularly interested to see how the MPs for Lichfield and Tamworth vote given their outspoken comments in favour of the Winter Fuel Allowance before the General Election.
“Explanations from the Government about a ‘surprise £20 billion black hole’ simply won’t wash. Firstly, scrapping the allowance saves £1.3billion, but the Chancellor Rachel Reeves spent more than double that on meeting trade union demands and other commitments last month.
“And secondly, Labour have had full access to Treasury data for the last six months so there are no economic surprises. She would have been well aware of Britain’s finance long before the election.
“The £400 increase due in pensions next year will be welcome, but is there to make up for inflation and will be no compensation for the loss of the Winter Fuel Allowance. I hope all MPs will vote with their conscience on this next week.”
But Mr Fabricant’s successor as Lichfield MP said the Labour government were being forced to “make decisions that no-one wants to make” due to Tory mismanagement of public finances.
Mr Robertson said:
“The £22billion black hole in the public finances were left by a Conservative government burying its head in the sand and running away from their responsibility to taxpayer.
“Less than two years after Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget that crashed the economy over a £45billion overspend, the previous government ignored a looming crisis almost half as large.
“Things are so bad that Office for Budget Responsibility – set up by the Conservatives – is now formally investigating the previous government after its chair expressed concerns over the transparency and credibility of how the Conservatives drew up the last budget.
“This Labour government will never bury its head in the sand like the Tories did.
“We know that after 14 years of scandal, broken promises and failure that people have stopped trusting politicians and we know the only way to rebuild that trust is through honesty and openness. It’s not easy to hear, and it’s not easy to say, but the very least we owe the British public is honesty.
“And with honesty, we are now faced with having to make decisions that no-one wants to make, but we will have to because of the mess that the Conservatives left the country in. It’s hard, but it’s important to fix the foundations of the country and to stop this ever happening again.
“That is why just this week we voted on brand new legislation to make it harder for any government to ignore their responsibilities to taxpayers and to create a ‘fiscal lock’ to prevent a similar situation happening again.”
