Exclusive: Nicola Sturgeon’s challenge to Tories over winter fuel

THERESA May could cut the budget for pensioners’ winter fuel allowance before devolving control of the benefit to Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has claimed.

Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Post, the First Minister said the Tories must give “a direct answer” over whether they would apply a “whopping great cut” to the lifeline welfare payment before it is devolved to the Scottish Government in 2019.

The Prime Minister said the benefit, worth up to £300 a year, will be means-tested in England under Conservative rule but that pensioners in Scotland would be exempt.

Miss Sturgeon said she feared the fuel payment for the elderly could be cut by as much as 87%, adding: “There is a number of questions we feel the Tories need to answer.

“They want to give the impression that this is a policy that does not apply in Scotland, but that is not necessarily the case because the winter fuel allowance is being devolved but it isn’t being devolved until 2019 so if the winter fuel allowance were to be rolled out before then across the UK, would that cut apply in Scotland?

“The big question, which we challenge the Tories to give a direct answer to here, is: given that the winter fuel allowance is being devolved and the budget is being devolved with it, are we going to have the budget as it is now or the budget after they have cut it?

“If we are given the budget after they have cut it then, no matter what they are trying to say, they will be cutting the winter fuel allowance and expecting the Scottish Government to make up the money from elsewhere.

“I would hope the Tories will give a very clear commitment that they will devolve the budget as it stands right now and not after they have taken a whopping great cut off it.

“We have seen this before when they devolved employment support powers, they applied an 87% cut to that budget before they devolved the power and clearly it would be wrong if they did that to the winter fuel allowance.”

The winter fuel allowance – introduced by Labour in 1997 – is a universal benefit that sees millions of elderly people given as much as £300 a year by the Government to help pay heating bills

Unlike many benefits, it is not currently means-tested.

The full criteria for means-testing has still to be revealed.

But it is expected that only the poorest will still receive them – which would mean up to 10 million pensioners losing out.

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “The SNP is resorting to desperate scaremongering.

“As the Nationalists know, winter fuel payments are being devolved to the Scottish parliament. That means any changes elsewhere in the UK will not apply here.

“Instead of whipping up fears about what is happening in England, Nicola Sturgeon should act now – as we have done – to make it clear that winter fuel payments will not be changed in Scotland.”

Meanwhile, in the SNP manifesto, due to be published on Tuesday, will be a plan to release an extra £118bn for public spending UK-wide.

It would aim to balance the current budget by the end of the Parliament (2021/22), stabilise net borrowing at the level it was at before the financial crash and see debt begin to fall as a share of GDP from 2019/20.

Miss Sturgeon added: “We will not follow the Tories in their blind pursuit of a pre-election surplus to spend in five years’ time or Labour in their reckless plans to hike taxes without knowing if they will secure any additional revenue.

“The SNP will put forward a responsible and credible fiscal plan that will free up an additional £118bn of public investment to grow the economy, safeguard our public services, protect household incomes and put the UK’s finances back on a stable footing.

“If that money was rightly spent on public services and supporting low paid households it could inject a further £10bn over the next parliament into spending in Scotland.

“The Tories’ plans have nothing to do with strong public finances and are all about their desire to cut benefits, cut pensions and shrink our public services like the NHS and the police. It is only the SNP that can keep the Tories in check.”

But Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said: “The Nationalists are trying to dictate to the electorate of the very United Kingdom that they want to break up.

“It’s all very well saying they’d raise billions, but they don’t seem to know how.

“The only way would be to massively increase taxes on hardworking people.

“That suggests the SNP is preparing a high-tax allegiance with Labour to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister.”