Good morning. Earlier this month, Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot reported that the government was rethinking arguably the most unpopular policy introduced by Labour since the election: the cut to winter fuel payments for pensioners. Nonsense, No 10 sources insisted in the following days: “There isn’t a review and I’d be amazed if we changed anything.”
No 10 sources are now, presumably, amazed, because yesterday Keir Starmer announced exactly what had been so strenuously denied: a plan to loosen eligibility requirements so that more pensioners qualify, to be introduced at the autumn budget.
