Wes Streeting warns pensioners won’t be the only ones to suffer under Labour as Rachel Reeves lines up more pain at next month’s Budget_l
Wes Streeting has warned pensioners won’t be alone in suffering under Labour as Rachel Reeves lines up further pain for Britons at next month’s Budget.
The Health Secretary said there were ‘other choices to come’ as the Chancellor prepares fresh action to tackle a claimed £22bn ‘black hole’ in the public finances.
Labour is facing a fierce backlash over Ms Reeves’ decision to strip millions of pensioners of their winter fuel payments.
But Mr Streeting suggested restricting payments to only those pensioners on the lowest incomes would not be the sole belt-tightening by the Chancellor.
‘Well, it’s about £1.5bn towards the £22bn black hole that we face,’ he told the New Statesman, in reference to the savings from Labour’s cuts to winter fuel payments.
Wes Streeting has warned pensioners won’t be alone in suffering under Labour as Rachel Reeves lines up further pain for Britons at next month’s Budget
The Health Secretary said there were ‘other choices to come’ as the Chancellor prepares fresh action to tackle a claimed £22bn ‘black hole’ in the public finances
Ahead of Ms Reeves’ first Budget on 30 October, Mr Streeting added: ‘There will be more difficult choices to come.
‘I understand why the Chancellor had to take the decision when she did because she had to set out the decision far enough in advance of winter for the savings to take effect.
‘I can understand why there will be some pensioners sat there thinking, ‘Well, why us? And what about others?’.
‘Well, there are other choices to come and these aren’t just Rachel’s choices to face up to, these are the choices of the whole government.’
Sources close to Mr Streeting denied the Health Secretary was hinting at potential cuts to working-age benefits.
But both Ms Reeves’ and Sir Keir Starmer’s have warned of ‘difficult decisions’ as they line up spending cuts, tax rises and new efforts to reduce the welfare bill.
In a speech in Downing Street last month, the Prime Minister admitted that ‘things will get worse before they get better’ as he told Britons to expect a ‘painful’ Budget.
Yet Mr Streeting pushed back at a suggestion Labour ministers are being too gloomy in their messages to the public.
‘I think people mistake honesty for gloominess,’ he said.
‘It would be quite jarring if we were all skipping around Whitehall singing Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ or D:Ream’s ‘Things Can Only Better’.
‘At the same as we’re dealing with a £22bn black hole and making some tough choices which are really sticking in the throats of people, particularly on the winter fuel allowance.’
The Tories have accused Ms Reeves and Sir Keir of overstating a ‘dire’ economic inheritance from the previous government in order to justify planned tax rises.
