LABOUR'S FUEL U-TURN IN TOTAL CHOAS

LABOUR'S enforced U-turn on taking vital winter fuel cash from millions of pensioners has now descended into "total chaos".

- Jonathan Walker

Downing Street aides are scrambling to find a way to ensure more OAPs get back up to £300 this year after Sir Keir Starmer changed tack.

As ministers were warned that ageing computers might prevent the payment being restored this winter, the PM's deputy Angela Rayner broke ranks and called for a statement within weeks.

Some Labour MPs believe Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who revealed the cut, faces the axe in a summer reshuffle. One source said, "It's total chaos" while a colleague added: “It’s another disaster. We can’t wait months before we tell people who will get the money and who won’t.”

No 10 is working on a scheme that could be unveiled “as soon as possible” but Labour MPs are suggesting Ms Reeves may be replaced by Pat McFadden, a veteran of the Blairite era and current Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

One told the Daily Express “the knives are out” for her, adding: “Come the Autumn Statement it’s easy to imagine Pat McFadden delivering it.”

The fiasco follows Sir Keir’s announcement last week of a partial U-turn over means testing winter fuel funds after the Chancellor had stripped the payments from more than nine million people.

The Prime Minister said details will be in the next “fiscal event”, the Autumn Statement, but Deputy PM Ms Rayner yesterday insisted the Chancellor must give answers at a spending review on June 11.

She said on Sky News: “I think 'It's total chaos. There is a pattern of not having the detail ready' that we’ve got the upcoming spending review and I’m sure the Chancellor will set it out when we've got the opportunity. At the first opportunity.”