The Cabinet Minister who axed pensioners’ winter fuel payments has her own £350-a-month energy bills paid by the taxpayer – while she lives in a £4 million London mansion.
Liz Kendall has been branded a hypocrite for removing the payment for ten million pensioners while bills at her second home are being met from the public purse.
The Work and Pensions Secretary’s main base is a four-bedroom property in Notting Hill, West London, which she shares with her partner, an Old Etonian investment banker. But she is allowed to claim costs for the second property she rents in her Leicester West constituency.
The most recent documents held by the Commons show she claimed a total of £3,810 in energy costs between April 2023 and July this year, with the largest monthly bills totalling £352.
Ms Kendall’s decision to axe the annual winter fuel payment of between £100 and £300 for all but the poorest pensioners will force 100,000 people into poverty by 2027 according to her own department’s forecasts.
Last night, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The hypocrisy of the Labour Government knows no bounds. I will not be claiming a penny in expenses for my heating.’
And Tory MP David Simmonds said: ‘This revelation will be a kick in the teeth for the 10 million pensioners facing choosing between heating and eating this Christmas because of Labour and Liz Kendall’s political choice to cut the winter fuel payment.
‘While Liz Kendall is living a life of luxury the country is facing real life consequences of Labour’s ill-thought-out decisions. In four short months this Labour Government have made it clear they do not have the British people’s best interests at heart.’
Hellbound and Down 