Labour Wants Kicking

Spending pledges fail to sway some in Yorkshire

- Robyn Vinter

"Nothing worries me," said David Moore, puffing on a large cigar in Morley town centre, about five miles from the middle of Leeds.

The 80-year-old was reacting to Rachel Reeves's spending review, in which the chancellor pledged to turn the tide after "14 years of mismanagement and decline".

Among increased spending for defence, the NHS and business, Reeves pledged to tackle the backlog of asylum-seeker cases and end the use of hotels to house them, to invest £39bn in social and affordable housing over the next decade and spend £15bn on improving transport, especially outside London and the south-east.

It comes after a partial U-turn on winter fuel payments following a substantial backlash when the benefit became means tested.

Moore - once a Labour voter but no longer - who lives in a detached house nearby, said he "got by alright" without the winter fuel payment this winter but "any money for OAPs is great".

He said the reversal was too late for his support of the government though. "They've made the biggest mistake of their lives."