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The Taxpayers Alliance has called on the government to cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners “as soon as possible” because those affected might not be around to vote in the next election.
The BBC has reported that at the group’s event at the Conservative party conference today in Manchester, the Taxpayers’ Alliance’s research director Alex Wild warned the government not to waste time on making a raft of unpopular cuts to pensioner benefits.
He said the cuts to the winter fuel allowance, free bus passes, the christmas bonus and other pensioner benefits should be made as soon as possible after an election as “some of the people… won’t be around to vote against you in the next election.”
Wild said the other reason for doing it quickly is many of those affected will have forgotten by the next election which party made the cuts.
Wild said: “If you did it now, chances are that in 2020 someone who has had their winter fuel cut might be thinking, ‘Oh I can’t remember, was it this government or was it the last one? I’m not quite sure.’
“So on a purely practical basis I would say do it immediately. That might be one of those things I regret saying in later life but that would be my practical advice to the government.”
The Taxpayers’ Alliance campaigns for lower taxes and highlights examples of Government waste.
Conservative MP Liam Fox, also speaking at the meeting, said older people would understand the need for cuts to help the next generation.
“We can’t afford it now, we can’t afford it in the future, why don’t we try to get a longer-term plan put in place so that people can make the adjustments they will need to make for us to be able to get back into balance.”
Fox said the Labour opposition was “broken” and the Conservatives should capitalise on the reduced threat of Labour to “do some of the more difficult things, however unpalatable they will be in the short term are what we need to do for the country.”
He said: “We need to do what we all know deep in our hearts to be right.”
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