Tory frontbencher Helen Whately accidentally attacked the Conservatives’ legacy rather than Labour’s latest policy during an TV appearance today.
Whately, currently the shadow transport secretary, attempted to take down the new government’s plan to restrict winter fuel allowance to just those on pension credit.
The controversial move means 10 million pensioners will no longer receive a payment of up to £300 to help cover their energy bills – and the Tories have repeatedly criticised Labour for it.
Whately tried to follow suit on Wednesday by saying how cold her own constituents are during the winter – even though Labour have only been in power since July.
The MP made the slip-up on BBC Politics Live, when presenter Jo Coburn seemed to unsettle Whately by asking her about the 2017 Conservative manifesto.
The Tory pledges at the time said winter fuel payments would be means-tested, and focused on the least well-off pensioners who are most at risk of fuel poverty, although the Conservatives eventually dropped the plan.
Coburn said: “It’s a little rich coming from Conservatives to say that this is the worst thing that has ever been done politically – to take the winter fuel payment away from better off pensioners.”
Whately, who was a minister in both Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson’s governments, seemed flustered by the remark, and tried to deflect by saying Labour had taken the means-testing to a very low level.
She then said: “There are 18,000 pensioners in my constituency who are losing their winter fuel allowance.
“Some of them have written to me, including one pensioner who only heats one room of their house through the winter and sleeps on their sofa because that’s in the one room that they heat in the winter.
“That pensioner is losing their winter fuel allowance.
“This is what this government is choosing to do, and to be clear it’s a choice.”
But Labour were only elected in July, after 14 years in opposition, and have not led the country through a winter yet.
Whately’s slip-up did not go unnoticed on X, of course, with many eagle-eyed viewers saying her anecdote revealed “more about life under 14 years of the Tories than it does under Labour”.
Her comments drew so much interest on the social media platform that her name even started trending.
Here’s a look at just a few of the posts calling out the former minister…
