Keir Starmer suggested keeping winter fuel payments in place could have sparked a Liz Truss-style meltdown on markets as he launched a bid to reboot his fledgling premiership today.
The PM acknowledged fury at the decision to strip the benefit from 10million pensioners – but said he could not ‘risk’ showing the world ‘as the Tories did that this country does not fund its policies properly’.
Watched by wife Victoria at Labour conference in Liverpool, he appealed for Brits to be ‘patient’ and stick with his ‘painful choices’ rather than go down the ‘road to nowhere’.
Attempting to strike a more positive tone after criticism of doom-laden pronouncements, Sir Keir told the gathering in Liverpool the country can find the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ if the right course is set now.
But he warned there were no ‘easy answers’, he would not get ‘everything right’, and the task would be ‘hard’ – blaming the Tories for problems ranging from the stretched finances to full jails, and…