No U-turn comes without a political cost.
This weekend, it has become clear there is a price to pay for Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to row back on winter fuel payment cuts.
One MP said in a text message: “We all want to see more”, while former prime minister Gordon Brown told Sky News this week the two-child benefit cap was “pretty discriminatory” and could be scrapped.
The cap, which prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children, is a symbolic sore for Labour that saw seven MPs suspended from the party last year.
Now it’s back to cause more trouble.
A Downing Street source suggests little has changed in the last week, and looking at the cap has always been part of the (now delayed) Child Poverty Strategy.
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‘You’ve got to be fair to pensioners’
But, beyond the whispers behind the scenes, one thing has overtly changed this weekend – growing pressure from Nigel Farage.
We expect Reform UK to announce this week that it will reinstate winter fuel payments and drop the cap.
Mr Farage is parking his tanks on Labour’s lawn, trying to tap into working-class votes on uncomfortable territory for Mr Starmer.
How would they pay for it? A combination of closing asylum hotels, cutting aid, and scrapping net-zero targets, the party says.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch
Headline-grabbing move
The beauty of not being in power is not having to make all the sums add up right…
