Speed of Labour's attack on pensioners shows their plans were developed well before election - Kwasi Kwarteng

It is, frankly, remarkable that Labour have revealed their true colours so soon after the general election. This speed means that their plans were well developed and they simply, rather dishonestly, didn’t mention those intentions in the course of the six- week campaign.

Of course, they kept quiet. They had to maintain iron discipline. Had they campaigned on increasing the pay of the unions by much more than inflation, while complaining about the fiscal “black hole”, they would have struggled to get over the finishing line, into government.

Still less did they announce they would take the Winter Fuel Payment from pensioners during the campaign itself.

Nor, come to think of it, did they announce to the country that they would release 5,000 criminals in two months to deal with overcrowding in prisons. Most of these measures are straight out of the left- wing playbook.

Islington Labour types have long been sceptical about prison. They do not believe in it.

As Lord Timpson, the new prisons minister, has said of our society, “we are addicted to punishment”.

He obviously believes in “rehabilitation” not punishment as the fundamental principle of justice.

Paying their union bosses and paymasters is also something which isn’t surprising from a socialist government.

This is what makes the withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Payment so baffling. This is not what you would normally expect from a socialist government.

The Conservatives would never have done this. It’s not as if this type of measure was not being discussed. It’s just that Tory chancellors did not go there.

So why have Labour done this? They have decided clearly to get all the difficult decisions done at the beginning of their term in government.

Their hope is that in two or three years the electorate will have forgotten about the early months of this parliament, when the grisly impact of Labour socialism revealed itself.

Labour brought in the Winter Fuel Payment back in 1997, when the public finances were a lot less strained than they are today.

Gordon Brown, before he sold off our gold reserves in 1999, felt generous and introduced this benefit.

But what Labour gives, Labour can take away.

Rachel Reeves, probably merely echoing her civil service masters, has now taken this benefit away.

Only those on Pension Credit or other benefits will continue to receive it. At a stroke, around 10 million pensioners will lose the benefit.

The very people that Labour governments have protected in the past are being put under financial pressure by this Labour government.

Civil servants, following the model of “Yes, minister” will no doubt describe this move as ‘bold’. More worryingly for Labour, it could hole this government below the water line before it has even set sail.

The Lib Dems took about 14 years to recover from their support for tuition fees at the end of 2010.

They had 57 seats in 2010. They could only muster eight seats at the next election in 2015.

Only time will tell if the removal of the Winter Fuel Payment has the same disastrous effect for Labour.