It seems there are no depths to which the Labour government will not sink, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

For context, the cost to the Treasury of the winter fuel allowance is about £2.2 billion.

This claim of a crashing economy derives from Labour’s fantasy £22 billion black hole which they say was caused by the Tories.

What they didn’t say was that half of the black hole was caused by the government’s decision to grant inflation busting pay rises to their union chums.

In other words, £9 billion for the public sector, including well paid train drivers, won’t crash the economy, but a mere £2.2 billion will.

Let’s go back to the Labour Party of 2017, back in the days before Sir Keir Starmer changed his mind about a second referendum.

But it was also before he changed his mind on the winter fuel allowance.

It was the Labour party’s own analysis that claimed removing it would kill 4000 people. So, is Starmer now happy to kill 4000 people, perhaps it will speed up his support for assisted suicide on which he’s promised a vote.

Perhaps 2017 is the distant past but what about 2022, just two years ago.

At this point Starmer had changed his mind on a second referendum, and indeed a whole host of other subjects, including his friendship with Corbyn, but he hadn’t yet changed his mind on the winter fuel allowance.

He tweeted: “Looking ahead to winter is frightening. I’ve met pensioners who have no idea how they’ll heat their homes. Parents who will have to skip meals so their kids can eat. The Tories are too busy fighting each other to notice. Labour has a plan that meets the scale of this crisis.”

Well, we know what his plan is now - to take money from pensioners and give it to the public sector.

But lo and behold, Sir Flip Flop strikes again, this time on the pensioners.

His decision not only to flip flop on the winter fuel payment, but also to destroy our domestic energy production, means this winter the country faces the prospect of being cold and poor.