00:00Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, this has got, Mr. Speaker.
00:09I want to hear the question.
00:12Mr. Speaker, when I was in government, I delivered record increases in the state pension. We
00:18protected the winter fuel payment and we gave pensioners cost of living benefits. He's the
00:23one that's taking money away from pensioners on £13,000, Mr. Speaker. But this has got
00:28nothing to do with the public finances. His own chancellor, his own chancellor just this
00:35morning, his MPs may not have been listening to her, his own chancellor this morning admitted
00:40that she would prefer it if this policy didn't even raise any money, Mr. Speaker. Obviously,
00:46the government would not have made this decision without an impact analysis. And yesterday,
00:50the energy minister confirmed that. So I ask very simply again, why won't he publish the
00:56assessment now?
00:57Mr. Speaker, I remember the days when the Conservative Party was concerned about balancing
01:05the books. They've left a £22 billion black hole. Responsibility for this decision lies
01:13there. The only way to rebuild our country and invest in our public services and make
01:18sure everyone is better off is if we clear up their mess and deal with the £22 billion
01:24black hole. But, Mr. Speaker, last week we learned that the shadow housing secretary
01:29was calling for means testing of winter fuel payments. Now it turns out, now it turns out
01:35that the shadow paymaster general agrees with her and even boasted about texting his own
01:40mother saying she didn't need the payment. Until he apologises for the mess they've created,
01:45he's no position to criticise the action that we're taking.
01:49Mr. Speaker, they're shouting now, but those arguments didn't even convince 50 of his own
01:56MPs who suddenly found that they had urgent business elsewhere yesterday, Mr. Speaker.
02:03But we know why he's hiding the impact assessment. The Labour Party's own previous analysis claimed
02:09that this policy could cause 3,850 deaths. So are the numbers in his impact assessment
02:16higher or lower than that?
02:19Mr. Speaker, we're taking this decision to stabilise the economy. That means we can commit
02:26to the triple lock. By committing to the triple lock, we can make sure that payments of state
02:31pension are higher and therefore there's more money in the pocket of pensioners, notwithstanding
02:37the tough action that we need to take. But he goes around pretending that everything's
02:42fine. That's the argument he tried in the election. And that's why he's sitting there
02:47and we are sitting here.
02:49Mr. Speaker, today, pensioners watching will have seen that the Prime Minister has repeatedly
02:56refused to admit or to publish the consequences of his decision. And we will continue holding
03:03him account for that.
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