OAPs Winter Fuel Payments: Peterborough

Peterborough Telegraph

Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes and North West Cambridgeshire MP Sam Carling say they will back the Government in the House of Commons vote on winter fuel payments for pensioners

Transcript

00:00I'll be voting with the government tomorrow because I think it's important that we get

00:03the economy back under control. We can't keep spending on the never-never. We've seen a

00:08£900 increase this year in the pension for the triple lock, and I'll be pushing the Chancellor

00:13to make sure when the triple lock comes out in future months, we can begin to support

00:16more and more pensioners. Not just those on the pension credit, but begin to invest overall

00:21in supporting our older residents.

00:23Are you disappointed this measure wasn't mentioned in the manifesto that got you elected?

00:27I'm disappointed that the government's come in and we've found and discovered a £22 billion

00:31black hole which is putting pressure on all of our public finances. We've got to get a

00:36grip of the national economy. We cannot spend on the never-never, and the difficult choices

00:41the government's making now are about rebuilding the economy so we can make those better choices

00:45in future.

00:46Not that many years ago, the Conservatives proposed a similar measure and Labour said

00:49it's going to lead to the deaths of something like 4,000 pensioners.

00:53In 2024, we've had an election, we were told there was going to be a difficult economy,

00:57we come in with a £22 billion black hole. Any government's got to get a grip of that,

01:02fix the finances and begin to invest in our public services.

01:05Look, I'll be backing the government. We have come into office and found that we have an

01:09enormous in-year deficit. That's not something that's coming up in the future, you know,

01:13it's not a problem that's going to face us in the distant future, it's coming up right

01:16now. We've got a £22 billion black hole. That means we have to take some difficult

01:20decisions and I'm very confident that the government will get things back on track.

01:24We will improve the public services that everyone in our society, especially pensioners, rely

01:28on. Things like the NHS, things like buses and local transport that we've been dealing

01:31with. And it's also worth, of course, mentioning that the state pension rises will continue

01:36to go up. We're retaining that triple lock, projecting at least £1,000 of state pension

01:40increases over the course of this Parliament. So we really do care deeply about pensioners

01:44and everyone in our society.

01:45So you're picking on a vulnerable section of the community?

01:48No, we're not picking on anyone. As I say, we have to balance the fact that we've got

01:52an enormous in-year budget deficit here with the money that we need to fund our public

01:56services, which everybody benefits from, including pensioners. No pensioner is going to thank

02:00me if I don't put in place the funding and the resources necessary to keep the NHS on

02:05its feet, well, get it back on its feet in fact, and make sure that those services are

02:09available for people.

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