Rachel Reeves’s tax-hiking budget did little to ease the concerns of retired miner and Labour voter Billy Pounder, who told GB News the measures will do “nothing” for him.
Pounder spoke to the People’s Channel last week about his financial woes which have forced him to lug a plug in heater from room to room in his small bungalow because he fears the cost of heating his home.
It led to a sobering reflection by Sir Keir Starmer after Pounder’s plight was put to him by GB News’s Political Editor Christopher Hope, with the prime minister saying he “understands the concerns” of pensioners worried about freezing this winter.
But Pounder appeared on GB News again today to reflect on the Autumn Budget which was unveiled to MPs by Rachel Reeves yesterday.
Billy Pounder criticised the Budget on GB News
GB NEWS
“Nothing in there really for me”, he said.
“We will see what they do with pensions for miners and for ordinary people.”
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Pounder, who told GB News last week that he regrets backing Starmer’s party at the ballot box in July, said politicians “don’t get out enough” to understand the real life consequences of their policies.
“They don’t get enough, they took a penny off the pint but there’s hardly any pubs left”, he said.
“The ones that are open, they’ve given the staff a pay rise but they will take it back some way. It’s a big smokescreen.”
Asked by Emily what he would ask the Chancellor if he had the opportunity, Pounder said MPs’ behaviour in Parliament leaves a lot to be desired.
Billy Pounder told GB News of the struggle he now faces without the Winter Fuel PaymentGB News
“I would ask if there’s any spare seats they’ve got down there”, he said.
“All the money they get and they sit and heckle at each other. If our kids did that at school, they would be on detention.
“If I did that I would get hit by a ruler! It’s ridiculous for what they get paid.”
There was a raucous atmosphere in the Commons yesterday when Reeves unveiled the record breaking series of tax hikes.
Pounder has had to lug a heater from room to room in a desperate bid to stay warm in his own home GB NEWSThe Chancellor said such measures were necessary to plug a £22bn ‘black hole’ left by the previous Tory government and insisted better days are ahead for Britain.
But outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak cranked up the volume in the room by using his final appearance fronting up the opposition to lash out at Reeves.
He accused Labour of “fiddling with the figures”.
“Time and again, we Conservatives warned Labour would tax, borrow and spend far beyond what they were telling the country and time and time again they denied they had such plans, but today the truth has come out”, he said.