Hard to create a bigger cock-up if you tried

Reeves has ended up with a bigger bill than if she had left the WFA alone. Everywhere she went, the sound of burnt rubber went too

- John Crace

Mmm. That went well, didn't it? One of the first things Labour did after winning the election was to cut the winter fuel allowance (WFA) for most pensioners. A signal to the bond markets that they would take the tough decisions to balance the books. It was just one of those things if a handful of old people decided to die of hypothermia. They were dying in a good cause. Pour encourager les autres.

MPs on all sides of the house - not least the Labour benches - began to ask whether this was the sort of policy a Labour government, any government come to think of it, ought to be introducing.

Rachel Reeves unconvincingly said the real aim was to make sure all those eligible for pension credit had claimed it, and there would be no U-turns.