Labour’s transport secretary was asked three times to promise that bus passes wouldn’t be taken away from pensioners in the wake of the winter fuel payment axe. In a tough interview on Good Morning Britain hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls repeatedly asked Louise Haigh for a promise after she told them there were ‘no plans’ to remove concessionary bus travel.
Susanna Reid immediately leapt in to say ‘We’ve heard all of those phrases through this interview, but you can confirm this morning to our viewers that pensioners will hang on to their free bus pass.” And Ed Balls added: “If I ask you that question a month before the election, you’d have said that you had no plans to remove the winter fuel allowance. It wasn’t in the manifesto, and now it’s going for most pensioners.”
Fears have been growing among some that concessionary bus travel could fall victim to cuts in the budget on October 30. After the decision to strip 11 million pensioners of the £2-300 winter fuel payment concerns were raised that Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves could consider bus passes…
