Labour's pensions minister faced an angry backlash last night after he claimed that scrapping the winter fuel allowance last year had ‘no effect’ on the health of older people.
In an incendiary intervention as the Government U-turned on the payments, Torsten Bell dismissed warnings from campaigners that removing it from ten million older people had risked a spike in cold-related illnesses and deaths.
Mr Bell told MPs that among those who had been hit by the cuts imposed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves last winter, ‘we see no differential effects on their health’.
But his comments triggered an angry response from campaigners and threatened to overshadow efforts by ministers to undo the political damage caused last year by the decision to means-test the winter fuel payment – one of Ms Reeves’s first acts in Government.
Dennis Reed, of over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, said: ‘It is a ridiculous thing to say.
