Do the Tories need to worry about the winter fuel row?

How long are the Tories going to campaign on the winter fuel payment? It was their main line of attack on Monday at Work and Pensions questions in the House of Commons, with a number of Conservative MPs asking ministers to say how many pensioners were going to die this winter because of the restrictions to the benefit. The Opposition has been dogged in its pursuit of the answer to this particular question, not least because Labour produced its own analysis in 2017 which suggested there would be around 4,000 deaths. It has been the main line of attack for the Conservatives, along with Labour’s freebie culture, since this new government started.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride clashed with Liz Kendall over this very question, with the minister using lines we are now all very used to, including:

Until Conservative members know that they have to apologise to the British people for the 200,000 extra pensioners in poverty over the past 14 years, and for a £22 billion black hole in the public finances, which we are now putting right but that has put the public finances at risk, they will remain on the Opposition Benches and we will remain on the Government Benches.