A complete triumph for Sir Keir Starmer

Yesterday's votes on pensioners' Winter Fuel Payments were a complete triumph for the Labour PM. Or he is a blundering oaf. Alas it seems more likely the Conservatives leapt into a tar trap.

The Labour government means-testing pensioners’ Winter Fuel Payments created an obvious and easy opportunity for the Opposition to cause immense pain to Labour MPs. Some, like Rachel Reeves, heaped scorn and condemnation on the Coalition government of 2010-15 as we cleared up their mess: the temptation to savour schadenfreude and take revenge will have been great indeed, and remains so.

One only needs to check Conservative and Reform MPs’ social media to see they have seized with energy and enthusiasm the opportunity offered. It is a mistake, but one they were inevitably going to make and which was no doubt foreseen.

Unfortunately, unless Starmer and Reeves are complete incompetents who have stumbled into accepting daft civil service advice and created an inadvertent controversy, it seems likely the Conservatives and Reform have blundered.

I am convinced my former colleagues have leapt into a tar pit dug for them, one in which they will now sink and be driven deeper and from which they will struggle to escape. I warned this sort of thing would happen. Alas.

Any fool can take things at face value. A strategic Opposition ought to think deeply and act with purpose and resolve.