Fourteen years of Tory mismanagement has wrecked our economy. Instead of taking the difficult decisions to stabilise our economy, Tory Ministers made commitments they knew they couldn’t pay for, covered it up and left it to this incoming UK Labour Government to clean up their mess.

The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer has been honest with the public that tough decisions would be needed to fix the foundations of our economy. These are not decisions we wanted to make or expected to make, but they are the right decisions in the circumstances.

By taking the tough decisions now to protect the public finances we can begin the process of change.

Winter Fuel Payments have been paid to all pensioners until now, never mind their income. This costs more than £2bn a year. With changes to Winter Fuel Payments, targeting the support to those who need it, we will save around £1.5bn a year.

Without taking difficult decisions like this which were needed to address the £22 billion hole in the public finances left by the last government, the pensions Triple Lock would be in jeopardy – leaving pensioners hundreds of pounds worse off.

Instead, we are protecting the Triple Lock which will boost more than 12 million pensioners’ incomes by hundreds of pounds next year, on top of previous rises.

There are no easy options, but not acting is not an option. If no action had been taken to repair the Conservatives’ black hole then it would have put financial stability at risk, including the risk of higher debt, higher mortgages and higher costs for the future. This UK Labour Government is not prepared to let this happen.

We must also be clear: there will be more tough choices ahead on spending, welfare and tax. We are not going to pretend otherwise.

Keir Starmer has spoken about a decade of national renewal because he knows, as the country knows, it will take time to repair the damage the Tories did to our economy.