Rachel Reeves 'panicked' after scrapping Winter Fuel Allowance, ex-Labour MP claims

GB News

Former Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle has delivered a damning assessment of Chancellor Rachel Reeves, warning she will "completely squander" the party's chances of winning the next election if she maintains her current approach.Speaking to GB News, Russell-Moyle claimed that Reeves must either undergo a "complete change of direction" or face being "reshuffled" by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer before the next election.FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00Is she very stupid or is she very dishonest?

00:04I don't think that's fair.

00:04I think she made a decision.

00:08She panicked when she saw the awful figures that came in.

00:12But the figures are worse now.

00:13And the Treasury officials thought this is a good moment

00:18to get rid of a policy that we've never really liked,

00:20put it in front of her, get it signed off.

00:22And the political reality has now hit that it was deeply unpopular

00:26and it was the wrong thing to do and there were cleverer ways of doing it.

00:29And we have reversed.

00:30And the best thing to do, of course, when you get something wrong,

00:33is to reverse.

00:35You're kindly defending the Labour Party this evening

00:37and you basically said she's both stupid to have gone along with it last year

00:40and she's dishonest now to pretend the finance is that much better

00:43because they're actually worse.

00:45Well, I think her ability to step back and look to see

00:50where there are other levers that can be pushed is different now.

00:53And that wasn't able to be done at the time.

00:55But I do think you're right in saying that it was a foolish thing to do

01:00so quickly, so early on, without giving yourself time to really look

01:05to see where the difficulties in the economy were,

01:07which they weren't around the winter fuel allowance.

01:09You may not want to answer, but does she have any credibility

01:12with your friends who are still on the Labour backbenches now?

01:16Or has this been a big dent to it?

01:19Look, I think that there is still a chance for Labour

01:23to turn it around for the next election

01:26and to win probably with a coalition or a reduced majority.

01:30But if Rachel continues in post and continues in the vein that she has,

01:38that will be completely squandered.

01:40And she is the least liked when I'm the doorknock on the doors of everyone.

01:44And I think backbenchers know that.

01:46So either she needs to have a complete change of direction

01:52or I think what's probably more likely before the next election,

01:55Keir Stammer will need to look at reshuffling.

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