OAPs Winter Fuel Payments: Peterborough
Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes and North West Cambridgeshire MP Sam Carling say they will back the Government in the House of Commons vote on winter fuel payments for pensioners
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00:00I'll be voting with the government tomorrow because I think it's important that we get
00:03the economy back under control. We can't keep spending on the never-never. We've seen a
00:08£900 increase this year in the pension for the triple lock, and I'll be pushing the Chancellor
00:13to make sure when the triple lock comes out in future months, we can begin to support
00:16more and more pensioners. Not just those on the pension credit, but begin to invest overall
00:21in supporting our older residents.
00:23Are you disappointed this measure wasn't mentioned in the manifesto that got you elected?
00:27I'm disappointed that the government's come in and we've found and discovered a £22 billion
00:31black hole which is putting pressure on all of our public finances. We've got to get a
00:36grip of the national economy. We cannot spend on the never-never, and the difficult choices
00:41the government's making now are about rebuilding the economy so we can make those better choices
00:45in future.
00:46Not that many years ago, the Conservatives proposed a similar measure and Labour said
00:49it's going to lead to the deaths of something like 4,000 pensioners.
00:53In 2024, we've had an election, we were told there was going to be a difficult economy,
00:57we come in with a £22 billion black hole. Any government's got to get a grip of that,
01:02fix the finances and begin to invest in our public services.
01:05Look, I'll be backing the government. We have come into office and found that we have an
01:09enormous in-year deficit. That's not something that's coming up in the future, you know,
01:13it's not a problem that's going to face us in the distant future, it's coming up right
01:16now. We've got a £22 billion black hole. That means we have to take some difficult
01:20decisions and I'm very confident that the government will get things back on track.
01:24We will improve the public services that everyone in our society, especially pensioners, rely
01:28on. Things like the NHS, things like buses and local transport that we've been dealing
01:31with. And it's also worth, of course, mentioning that the state pension rises will continue
01:36to go up. We're retaining that triple lock, projecting at least £1,000 of state pension
01:40increases over the course of this Parliament. So we really do care deeply about pensioners
01:44and everyone in our society.
01:45So you're picking on a vulnerable section of the community?
01:48No, we're not picking on anyone. As I say, we have to balance the fact that we've got
01:52an enormous in-year budget deficit here with the money that we need to fund our public
01:56services, which everybody benefits from, including pensioners. No pensioner is going to thank
02:00me if I don't put in place the funding and the resources necessary to keep the NHS on
02:05its feet, well, get it back on its feet in fact, and make sure that those services are
02:09available for people.