Miliband says government has no need to apologise for cutting winter fuel payments last year
Ed Miliband was on radio and TV this morning to talk about nuclear energy, but he spent much of the time in interviews talking about winter fuel payments (WFPs). In particular, he was asked if the government would apologise for cutting WFPs last year, given that it has now decided to restore them for most pensioners.
No, was the answer. Miliband told Times Radio:
We’re not going to apologise for the actions we took to stabilise the economy. That’s what happened last year. The chancellor came into office, saw a massive black hole in the nation’s finances. She took a whole series of measures.
Now, what’s happened since then is two things. One, we have stabilised the public finances and secondly, we’ve listened to people. Now, we haven’t changed the principle that the winter fuel allowance should be means tested but we have listened to people on the threshold of how high the threshold should be for qualification. Personally, I think it’s the right thing that the chancellor has done.
While being asked continually to apologise for the original WFP cut may have been irritating for Miliband, and will be for Keir Starmer when he inevitably gets asked the same question today, paradoxically it is a sign that the U-turn announcement yesterday has been relatively successful. That is because if the opposition, and the oppositon media, are focusing on calls for an apology in relation to a policy issue, that generally means they have run out of other, more important, things to complain about.
While the media (see the Sun’s splash), and MPs, seem to care a lot about apologies, members of the public may be more interested in the substance of what the government is doing. That is the case Miliband made to Times Radio. He said:
I’ve talked to lots of people on doorsteps about the winter fuel allowance. I can’t remember anyone who said, you should apologise. People wanted us to change the policy and that’s what we’ve done.
Opposition MPs say the government should apologise because cutting the WFP was a bad decision in the first place. Privately, many ministers probably agree. But the government is arguing that the cut was needed because of the state of the government finances last year and ministers are not going to abandon that position.
Good morning. As you will probably have heard already, Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has announced plans to build a new nuclear power station in Suffolk, Sizewell C. Here is the Guardian story.
Oops. That is our story from 2009, when Gordon Brown was prime minister, Miliband was energy secretary for the first time, and Sizewell C was first getting the go-ahead from government.
Often reading about British politics (and writing about it) can feel like being trapped in a circular doom loop of stasis, particularly when the government is talking about infrastructure policy. But this time it is different, Miliband claimed in interviews this morning. In an interview with Today, when Justin Webb, the presenter, pointed out that the last Conservative government also said that it was committed to Sizewell C and asked what was different this time, Miliband had a simple answer.
We’re funding it. And that’s the big difference.
We’re actually putting put forward the money to make it happen.
Miliband went on:
This is the biggest investment in nuclear, new nuclear, in more than half a century in Britain. Sizewell C. Small modular reactors, Rolls-Royce, it was announced at 7am this morning, have won that competition. Nuclear fusion.
We’re doing this because we want energy security for the country, long-term energy security. Good jobs, 10,000 jobs, at Sizewell alone. And, frankly, something I care a lot about, to tackle the climate crisis, because we’ve got to get off insecure, volatile fossil fuels, both for security and for climate reasons.
Here is our overnight story, by Jessica Elgot.
Miliband was doing an interview round this morning, and he will be in the Commons making a statement about this later. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is also giving a speech this morning that will cover nuclear power.
At Westminster, opposition to the Sizewell C announcement is likely to be limited. The last Conservative government was in theory in favour. In the past the Liberal Democrats were sceptical about nuclear power, but that has changed under Ed Davey. Judging by Nigel Farage’s speech yesterday, you might conclude that Reform UK back opening coalmines as their preferred answer to the energy crisis, but they have not spoken out against nuclear power stations.
So, on this issue, the Green party have the opposition side of the pitch all to themselves. This morning Adrian Ramsay, the party’s co-leader and MP for Waveney Valley, which covers parts of Suffolk and is not far from Sizewell, issued this statement. He said the money could be “far better spent” on green energy and better insulation.
Nuclear power is hugely expensive and far too slow to come on line. The only thing delivered by EDF so far at Hinkley Point in Somerset is overspend and delay. Electricity was promised by 2017 with a price tag of £22bn but this has mushroomed to 40bn and Hinkley is still producing no power.
The money being spent on this nuclear gamble would be far better spent on insulating and retrofitting millions of homes, bringing down energy bills and keeping people warmer and more comfortable.
We should also be investing in genuinely green power such as fitting millions of solar panels to roofs and in innovative technologies like tidal power. All this would create many more jobs than nuclear ever will.
Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in Suffolk.
10.30am: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is speaking at the GMB conference.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference to announce the party’s new chair. According to the Daily Mail, the new chair is the TV presenter and former Brexit party MEP David Bull.
11.30am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: Miliband is expected to make a statement to MPs about the plan to go ahead with the Sizewell C nuclear power station.
3pm: Angela Eagle, minister for border security and asylum, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee on asylum accommodation.
3pm: Adm Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, gives evidence to the Commons defence committee.
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