Conservative leader Rishi Sunak criticises the government for removing Winter Fuel Allowance from some pensioners and asks whether the prime minister will publish “the impact assessment”. In reply, Sir Keir Starmer claims increases in pensions "will outstrip any loss of payment" as a result of the triple lock, before calling for Mr Sunak to “apologise for the 22-billion-pound black hole”. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Yesterday, Labour MPs voted to remove the winter fuel payment from over 10 million British
00:10pensioners, including those with just £13,000 of income. With that decision debated and
00:17made, it is now important that the House understands the full consequences of the Government's
00:25So, can I very specifically ask the Prime Minister,
00:29will he now publish the impact assessment before the House rises?
00:34Prime Minister, the fact of the matter is this. They left a £22 billion black hole
00:43and they hid it from the OBR. Richard Hughes is absolutely clear that it is the largest
00:50year-ahead overspend outside of the pandemic. Of course, when it comes to mitigations and impacts,
00:57we have put those in place. Ramping up pension credit, dealing with housing benefit and linking
01:02it—something the party opposite did not do for years—and because of the tough decisions
01:07that we are making to stabilise the economy, we can make sure that the triple lock shows
01:12that increases in pensions will outstrip any loss of payments.
01:17But before he complains about us clearing up his mess,
01:21perhaps he would like to apologise for the £22 billion black hole.