Could the Winter Fuel Payment fiasco bring down Rachel Reeves?

When the Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that she was withdrawing the Winter Fuel Payment from most pensioners on the same day, last July, when she awarded fat pay rises to many public sector workers she perhaps imagined herself as striking a blow for inter-generational fairness. Working people would get more money – at least if they worked in the public sector – and wealthy retirees a little less. Yet it is fast becoming the an issue which could prove her undoing.

The tragedy of the Winter Fuel Payment fiasco is that it leaves the far bigger problem untouched

We now learn that the government’s partial U-turn will involve pensioners effectively being means-tested. All would receive the benefit initially, but any pensioner household with income above the average UK level of around £37,