Old people will freeze because of Winter Fuel Allowance cut to fill invented ‘black hole’ – and Labour knows it

The Labour party’s cut to the Winter Fuel Allowance will kill around 4,000 pensioners this winter – according to the party’s own research.

Labour’s excuse for the cut to the vital benefit, which gives pensioners £250-600 toward heating costs, is the supposed – and apparently invented – ‘black hole’ in the national finances, a ‘hole’ that is a pinprick in the national expenditure of around 1.2 trillion pounds and one that the government could create money to fill, if it actually existed, at the click of a key, or with a small tax rise on the wealthiest.

Other government statistics show that the cut is aimed primarily at over-75s, at women more than men and at those living in the north most of all: