Another Day Another Broken promise from Sir starma the promise under labor your energy bills won't go up two years ago he said this we'll keep those prices down we will not allow these Rises to happen he even promise labor has a fully costed plan to freeze your bills that's why the labor party has a fully costed plan to freeze energy bills this winter and we'll pay for that with a windfall t Ta on those unexpected profits I understand I completely understand why so many people are frustrated at the government that's not doing anything about their energy bills labor even tweeted this labor would act now to stop energy bills Rising saving you £1,000 this winter in May this year he went on Good Morning Britain and said labor would save you 400 quid on your bills in June this year he said again that labor would cut bills create jobs and provide energy Security in Parliament he hammered the Tories for even thinking about cutting the winter fuel payments for pensioners last year the Prime Minister was apparently drawing up plans to remove the winter fuel allowance from pensioners so will he now rule out taking pensioners winter fuel payments off them to help fund his46 billion black hole then people voted for him he won the election and this happens he cuts winter fuel payments for the elderly they now face many of them a choice between Heating and eating and then today this happens the average annual Energy bill Will Rise by 10% to £ 1,717 in Great Britain from October Ed Miller banley Energy Secretary is obviously blaming it all on the Tories saying it's all about their toxic Legacy but I mean I thought that labor had a fully costed plan didn't you no okay this is the same EDM Miller Band who has just flown some 6,000 miles by the way to Brazil to talk about climate change hasn't he heard of a zoom call Labor voters are waking up to the reality of cir starmar and Co saying one thing before the election and doing something completely different now they're in power I'm a staunch labor voter and I was ashamed to see a labor government at the poorest people the most get your wallets out because k d is about let's get a thoughts of my panel now I am joined by former BBC and ITV political Chief is John Sergeant we've got entrepreneur and businesswoman Joanna jaru and political commentator Alex Armstrong John is proving trickier for K armor in government than it was in opposition isn't it well that's it we all knew it was going to be and they knew it was going to be but could he have gone into the election saying I'm going to put up taxes your heating is going to go by 10% no they couldn't in fact this is a bit of politics and we'll all suffer from it but the key thing to bear in mind is that the Legacy was passed on from the conservatives you can argue about it you can argue about whose fault it was but don't say it was all Rosy everyone knew this was going to be very very difficult because we haven't got much money in the public purse it's as simple as that okay but you know cutting the winter fuel payments for the elderly a lot of old people now choosing between Heating and eating when kiss D absolutely hammered the Tories for that a little while ago you know that to me seems outrageous well it is outrageous and it obviously isn't you know the most ideal thing that people want but realistically I actually think that it's more even-handed of labor at the end of the day you know they resisted reversing the two child benefit cap we can't just always have this kind of ring around pensioners as if they're kind of more special than other parts of society it's really unfortunate that we are in this 20 billion black hole the economy the economy is obviously on its knees so we to be able to kind of pull 3.1 billion PS was Borrowed by this government last month alone to pay for public services and unfortunately the choice there was let pensioners freeze this winter to pay our Union mate no but I don't even think it's that because you've got to look at it kind of um holistically in the sense that if these um strikes do continue then the amount that the economy actually loses and we we depend on productivity as well for growth so we need these um Strikers to get back to work so when you actually tally up it's better for them to to settle with and these were independent pay review bodies so it's very easy to say oh they gave the money no the money was had to be paid because the public sector workers knew they had a very strong Cas but but but but I don't want to get bugged down in the strikes things going to talk about that later but seriously though they could have attached some conditions to that money and they chose yes they could have done in some cases people people's bills are going to go up by about 10% now and you know a lot of people could have seen that coming and I could have that monolog has repated and again said labor well here we are well your bills would go down famously right your bills your energy bills will go down that's what he said and this is also a problem because Ed millerand is is is selling this GB energy uh thing to the public over the last uh election campaign which he well well you you would say that John wouldn't you uh and he said that's going to be our Sav you're going to have cheap bills your bills will go down by 10 and something quid well obviously we know in the short term and we all said that the Net Zero Madness that this government is going to impose on us is going to push bills up not only that they also stopped drilling new oil they they've got rid of all of that policy so cheap fuel is no longer available and so rather than this being a sensible transition if we're going to do it let let's be sensible about it we're now going to punish the most impoverished in our society in order to have this grand plan for GB energy which is obviously now punishing pensioners first so you let your land freeze that's what K St wants to do but you can't go on subsidizing people's heating bills you can't do endlessly there comes a point when you've got to balance your income yes I agree I agree John I agree but the problem is what we have but this is meant to be the the beind labor party and the problem is is that they're going to let pensioners there will be pensions that die this winter as a result of this policy are we saying that that is acceptable it's never should be acceptable don't don't pretend as if all pensioners are going to freeze this winter yes you know there are are some people that unfortunately will miss out but they do also have the pension um credit scheme as well which is going to um be able to be of benefit to around 800,000 pensioners so they're taking away to some extent from one side but they are also helping people who are at the lower end as well fine but where's the fully costed plan John oh no where is it that it was never there be honest this is a government of service this is credibility you know hold on I'm not I'm not defending the government in this their whole aim was to win the election that's they did by promising as little as they could by OB fisca about all sorts of problems which they knew were coming up I except that the overall point is we all know that our country is in deep trouble that's why the conservatives were nearly wiped out at the general election so what you can't do is to say oh well uh this is all now their fault in six day this was the position we were all in we knew this you can tell that this isn't solely a political decision because when we've looked at past governments they have protected pensioners you know they've had the it made sense for the conservative party to do that nobody makes sense to look after people who put tax into this country for their entire lives to be protected by this country I'm saying is that it also wasn't just a s political decision which it has been before so if you're going to do things like not reverse the two child benefit cap and you know that the government the um country is in the state that it is then you should also means test other parts as well well we haven't means tested the goldplated pension SCH we're giving to the Civil Service which is going to cost this country billions why don't we scrap that but we won't because the Kia starm makes we say it's not political but Kia St is looking after his Club of the civil service at the top there who are going to get these massive massive payouts when we could be giving that to people who might actually die this winter I don't know what happened to the labor party overnight they in the country have private pensions then they get this money like we that's their hard earned cash that's they hard earned private cash when we look at what I do disagree with actually is the fact that I think it was 8 point Sorry 11 .4 million um pensioners that were getting it and then now 10 million are losing it maybe that's too far but in terms of you know the thresholds I do think that they should because it's like why am I going to be sending myself on a yacht if I'm a pensioner and then receiving extra benefit makes no sense it it does not make sense to give everybody this money it it's it's easy to do because you then don't have to do any testing and all the rest of it but if you look at it again sensibly from a distance would it be a good idea to get there are means tested people in this country Carol vman did a famous interview with somebody on the phone a disabled pensioner who is going to be taken off her and her husband couldn't walk couldn't get out of bed she is going to be one of those people that doesn't get that fuel payment anymore and so this is what I mean it's the means testing isn't even good enough no that's that's an argument for improving the means testing system not an argument let's give every let's give everyone thisit I I understand this there are Arguments for and against you the whole pensioners winter fuel payments thing I get all of that but for me this Cuts right to the core of K st's government and it cuts to the core of lies and hypocrisy and that is a problem for a person who's build himself as Mr integrity and when you see him stood in Parliament there hammering the tourist or even thinking about doing this which actually some people are now saying look there was a case difficult we can agree to that it is very difficult for K in this position nobody's saying it's easy but it's not all all of this about K sta Li and stuff it's literally been 2 minutes since he been government right if he said no but if he says that you know your energy bills are going to come down he didn't say your energy bills are going to come down within the first month these increases that we're seeing are because of global factors as well and if off gem have then made this decision you can't just say then oh it's kiss D you also cutting we're also cutting off cheap fuel in order that would help us to to pay for these things that's a political decision that can be a criticism in terms of you know whether we should be renewing nauy um oil licenses lies yeah but um the rest of it you can't say that it's his fault okay all right well look a lively start you love to see it happy Friday winners so still to come is the