Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented: “The Winter Fuel Payment axe is not about rot in the system, it is about basic fairness for older people facing soaring energy bills.

“In real terms, the changes this winter mean that some older people will face the highest energy bills on record.

“This has the potential to create a public health emergency which will actually create more pressure on the under-pressure NHS which the Prime Minister says he wants to fix.

“The impact of living in cold damp homes is particularly harsh on those older people with a disability, a long term health condition or with poor mental health. It results in people turning to an NHS and, in some cases, can result in additional winter deaths.

“Ending energy debt, extending the Household Support Fund, expanding Warm Home Discounts and evolving standing charges are all now needed urgently to help mitigate the impact of high bills and the axe to the Winter Fuel Payment.

“But as well as support this winter, the public need to see a clear timetable for when the very real benefits of cheaper renewable energy and the Warm Homes Plan will kick in.

“If the Prime Minister needs to find some ‘broad shoulders’ to pay for this support, let’s not forget that every month we hear about more massive profits for firms in the wider energy industry.”

BUDGET – on the budget the Prime Minister said the nation should expect some ‘painful’ news from the Chancellors October 30 statement, but that it was “short-term pain for long-term good”.

WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS – the PM said he wasn’t shying away from “unpopular decisions” but that the payment system for winter fuel was “not particularly well-designed” and was “costing a fortune”.

UKRAINE – after a brutal missile and drone onslaught from Moscow on Ukraine over the weekend Sir Keir said he would “stand with them (Ukraine) for as long as it takes”, but he did not say whether he would allow Storm Shadow missiles use against Russia, which President Zelenskyy has been calling for.

ILLEGAL SMALL BOAT CROSSINGS – the Prime Minister again trumpeted his Border Security Command plan but said negotiations with Europe were ongoing.

According to the Independent, Laura Trott MP, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: “The government are no longer promising to protect working people from their incoming tax raid because just like pensioners, working families are next in line for Labour’s tax hikes.

Sir Keir hinted at some “big asks” for the public from labour and that the Chancellor Rachel Reeves October 30 budget “will be painful”, but will be “short-term pain for long-term good”.

Responding to Keir Starmer’s speech, John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be left disheartened and betrayed by Starmer’s speech, which does nothing to help households who are already struggling under a 70 year high tax burden.

“The prime minister talks about ‘fixing the foundations’ and yet is whistling the same old tune of managed decline that has plagued Britain for decades.

“If this new Labour government is genuinely committed to wealth creation as it claims, it should avoid hiking the very taxes that so ruthlessly crush economic growth, particularly capital gains tax.”

The Prime Minister drew parallels between the clean-up of the riots, and the work his Government is proposing to improve the country.

Sir Keir Starmer said: “We can get through this together, because the riots didn’t just betray the sickness, they also revealed the cure, found not in the cynical conflict of populism, but in the coming together of a country.

“The people who got together the morning after, all around the country, with their brooms, their shovels, their trowels and cleared up their community, they reminded us who we really are. I felt real pride in those people who cleaned up our streets, rebuilt the walls, repaired the damage.

“And I couldn’t help thinking about the obvious parallels, because imagine the pride we will feel as a nation when after the hard work of clearing up the mess is done, we have a country that we have built together, built to last, that belongs to every single one of us, and all of us have a stake in it.

“Our hard work rewarded a dozen times over, because we’ll have an economy that works for everyone, an NHS not just back on its feet, but fit for the future, streets that everyone feels safe in, no longer dependent on foreign dictators, because we’re producing our own clean energy right here and giving every child, wherever they come from, whatever their background, the chance to go as far as their talents will take them.”

“Let’s fix it together,” he concluded.

Sir Keir Starmer said he will not shy away from making “unpopular decisions” following criticism of his plans to impose restrictions on winter fuel payments.

The Prime Minister said: “We have made that difficult decision to mend the public finances so everyone benefits in the long-term, including pensioners.

“Now that is a difficult trade off, and there will be more to come.

“I won’t shy away from making unpopular decisions now, if it’s the right thing for the country in the long-term, that’s what a government of service means.”

Sir Keir Starmer said: “This time, to be honest with you, I genuinely didn’t know.

“Every day of that disorder, literally every day, we had to check the precise number of prison places and where those places were to make sure we could arrest, charge and prosecute people quickly.

“Not having enough prison places is about as fundamental a failure as you can get and those people throwing rocks, torching cars, making threats, they didn’t just know the system was broken, they were betting on it, gaming it. They thought ‘Ah, they’ll never arrest me and if they do, I won’t be prosecuted, and if I am, I won’t get much of a sentence’.

“They saw the cracks in our society after 14 years of failure and they exploited them. That’s what we’ve inherited. Not just an economic black hole, a societal black hole and that’s why we have to take action and do things differently.”

Sir Keir Starmer said “things are worse than we ever imagined”, telling a press conference: “In the first few weeks we discovered a £22 billion black hole in the public finances and before anyone says ‘Oh this is just performative or playing politics’ let’s remember the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) did not know about it, they wrote a letter setting that out.

“They didn’t know because the last government hid it and even last Wednesday, just last Wednesday, we found out that thanks to the last government’s recklessness we borrowed almost £5 billion more than the OBR expected in the last three months alone. That’s not performative, that’s fact.”

The Prime Minister went on to say a “mindless minority of thugs” thought they “could get away with causing chaos” during the riots, saying: “Now they’ll learn that crime has consequences, that I won’t tolerate a breakdown in law and order under any circumstances and I will not listen to those who exploit grieving families and disrespect local communities.

“But these riots didn’t happen in a vacuum, they exposed the state of our country, revealed a deeply unhealthy society, the cracks in our foundations laid bare, weakened by a decade of division and decline, infected by a spiral of populism which fed off cycles of failure of the last government.

“Every time they faced a difficult problem they failed to be honest, they offered the snake oil of populism which led to more failure – round and round and round. Stuck in the rut of the politics of performance.”

Warning of tough times ahead for the country, the PM said he “felt real pride” when he saw people in Southport clearing up after the riots.

Sir Keir Starmer has claimed that his Government has done more in seven weeks than the Tory government did in seven years.

In a speech from Downing Street’s rose garden, the Prime Minister said: “I said before the election, and I say it again really clearly today, growth – and frankly, by that, I do mean wealth creation – is the number one priority of this Labour Government.

“And that’s why in our first few weeks, we’ve set up the National Wealth Fund because we want every person and every community to benefit.

“It’s why we’ve unlocked planning decisions, because we’re going to build 1.5 million new homes. It’s why we set up Great British Energy, to create good jobs and cut people’s bills. And it’s why we ended the national strikes that have crippled our country for years.

“Because I defy anyone to tell me that you can grow the economy when people can’t get to work, because the transport system is broken, or can’t return to work because they’re stuck on an NHS waiting list.

“We’ve done more in seven weeks than the last government did in seven years. And these are just the first steps towards the change that people voted for, the change that I’m determined to deliver.”

The Prime Minister said he was forced to make a decision to release some prisoners early because it he didn’t “we wouldn’t be able to respond to the riots as we did”.

In his opening remarks, Sir Keir said: “I promised this government will serve people like you. I promised that we will get a grip on the challenges we faced.

“And we will be judged on our actions, not words. Growth is the number one priority of this Labour government.”

He added: “We have done more in seven weeks than the last government has done in seven years.”

The PM has began addresses journalists and invited guests in the Rose Garden at Downing Street.

The Prime Minister has spoken about “not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole” he claims is a result of the previous government.

But the big question will be if tax rises are now on the cards for October 30 in Chancellor Rachel Reeves budget.

Speaking to Times Radio, Andrew Griffith, Shadow secretary of state for science, said: “If the prime minister wants to rebuild trust in politics, which we all do, we’ve had an election, he needs to stop behaving like a leader of the opposition and start governing.

He added: “So if the prime minister wants to talk today as the prime minister, I’d like to hear from him about how he’s getting on with delivering the things in the manifesto, how he’s going to stop the rot in terms of cronyism corrupting the civil service.

Sir Keir is expected to use his speech to warn that “frankly – things will get worse before we get better” as the Labour administration tries to deal with “not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole”.

Writing in The Times, the Prime Minister said that “once trust is broken, it is difficult to get back”, saying he stood on the steps of Downing Street after the General Election and promised to lead a government that would “return politics to public service, to rebuild that hope and trust”.

He said: “We have to be honest with people about the tough choices we face and the difficult decisions we will need to make.

“Together, we’ll build a country that belongs to all of us. A country we can be truly proud of. Let’s do that work together.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to raise taxes in her budget on October 30 after accusing the Tories of leaving a £22 billion shortfall in the public finances.

Sir Keir Starmer wants to “fix the foundations of the country”, Cabinet Office minister Ellie Reeves said before the Prime Minister’s speech from Downing Street’s rose garden today.

Speaking to LBC radio, she said: “The Prime Minister will be speaking later today about the inheritance from 14 years of Conservative government, the black hole in the country’s finances, but also the societal black hole that we’re facing.

“For example, the fact that the prison estate has been operating at 99% capacity with no plan from the previous government to fix that, so he’ll be talking about fixing the foundations.

“Under the previous government, we saw the sticking plaster politics papering over the cracks, hoping that something would come up, whereas Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, wants to fix the foundations of the country so that people’s lives can be better.”