Ann Widdecombe leads revolt against Farage's benefits giveaway

Telegraph

27-05-2025

Nigel Farage faces a rebellion from Ann Widdecombe over his commitment to fully reinstate the winter fuel payment as part of a benefits giveaway.
The Reform UK leader said he would restore the benefit to all retirees after Sir Keir Starmer stripped it from more than 10 million people.
The Prime Minister committed on Wednesday to a partial U-turn but remains outflanked by Mr Farage on both winter fuel cuts and the two-child benefit cap, which Reform has vowed to abolish.
Restoring the winter fuel allowance to every pensioner would come at an estimated cost of £1.4 billion a year and the move is seen as an attempt to appeal to Left-leaning voters.
Although Ms Widdecombe, the party's home affairs and justice spokesman, agreed in principle to reinstating the benefit, she went against Mr Farage's plan for blanket eligibility in what could be interpreted as a polite challenge to the Reform leader.
Ms Widdecombe said: 'What I have always said is that I would have restored it for everybody except higher-rate taxpayers.
'But there is an argument to say that that takes administration, and that it might be just as cheap to give it to everybody.'
Reform continues to offer a broadly Right-wing economic agenda, including pledges to begin a bonfire of red tape and raise the income tax personal allowance to £20,000.
Mr Farage is also planning to scrap net zero as part of efforts to raise £350 million that would pay for the return of the allowance, the end of the two-child benefit cap and tax breaks for married parents.
Ms Widdecombe, a former Tory minister, went on to recall how she donated her own winter fuel cash to charity when she was eligible for the payment.
She said: ' I used to give it away every year when we all got it.
'The other option that hasn't been explored, as far as I know, is where everybody got it but we had to apply for it first.
'My mother and I never applied. That goes back to the Nineties when my mother was living with me and I said to her, 'I hope you don't want to apply for the winter fuel allowance.' And she said, 'Of course not.'
'The reason it was then extended to everybody was the administration of applying for everybody, and then it was claimed a lot of people didn't apply and didn't know how to apply.'
'Poured scorn on universal benefits'
Ms Widdecombe also expressed her opposition to the principle of a universal winter fuel allowance in an article for the GB News website last year.
She wrote: 'I have myself for a very long time poured scorn on universal benefits, which add to the coffers of the rich as well as the poor…
'[I] am wont to tell the tale of how I once got my winter fuel payment and my cheque for Strictly Come Dancing in the same post.'
Mr Farage's intervention last weekend – first reported by The Telegraph – led to fresh demands from Labour rebels for No 10 to speed up planned policy shifts on both policies.
Sir Keir Starmer is open to scrapping the two-child benefit cap but Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is understood to be resisting an immediate announcement until she can spell out how to fund it.