Enda Brady: UK correspondent on the UK Government making a u-turn on winter fuel payments for pensioners

Millions more pensioners will receive the winter fuel payment as the UK Government makes changes to eligibility.

The payment was paid only to those on pension credit last year.

UK correspondent Enda Brady explains further - and unpacks the reactions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In de Bradia. UK correspondents back of us Indo.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
How are you hello, Heather. I'm great. Yeah, just back
in the UK literally just landed from Peru, so kind
of getting my head around being in London again. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's stretching and we've been following your progress and the
fact that you did was it two leagues out of five?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yes, So I called it a day. At the end
of stage three, I was five kilometers from the end
in the Amazon and it was getting dark, and I'd
seen some very seriously good runners get injured leg breaks, ankles,
collar bonds, dislocated shoulders. One woman collapsed because of the humidity,
and I thought they're all far fitter and more knowledgeable

(00:41):
than me. And I was faced with the prospect of
heading back into the Amazon as night fell with a
head torch and it was like an assault course. I
mean it was heat, humidity, altitude, every insect in the
world trying to eat you alive. It was an amazing experience,
but I called it a day. At the end of
stage three, met some rod There was some rugby blocks

(01:02):
from South Africa who were very much fun to be around,
and one of them said to me, we've got a
minibus leaving here out of the Amazon. There's a space
for you. Do you want to come drink some cold beers?
So I spent seven hours, seven hours on a minibus
with these rugby blokes from East London in South Africa,
and they were so much fun, hilarious.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Fellas loading you in the minibass. How nice would you
have got out?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
You basically stay with the race until each stage concludes,
so you will, but it was like sleep, sleeping in
hammocks to humidity. It's called the jungle Ultra. They call
it the most difficult race in the world, and it
absolutely is. It's not. It's not a running race for me.
Now I'm done with ultra running. I'm gonna go back
to marathons on flat surfaces in lovely cities, and at
some stage I'll visit New Zealand and we will drink

(01:48):
something cold and nice at the end after forty two kilometers.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I'll tell you what, if you give me enough of
a hits up that you can and I might do
the marathon with you. I mean, obviously I'm not doing it.
I'm not doing it with you because of You're like, whooa,
why I hear it? I'll be behind, but I might.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Give it a home for you. Amazing. We'll find an
amazing charity in New Zealand and I'll hold you to
that promise.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Myself in trouble already. Okay, Now this winter, this winter
fuel payment, U turn, What a surprise, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, look, it was a stupid move to begin with.
Starmer and Rachel Reeves said that there was no money
we can't afford to be giving rich pensioners, you know,
six hundred dollars every winter for their fuel allowance. There
is an issue in that. Yeah, every every pensioner gets it.
And yes there are many many millionaire pensioners who don't
need it. But unfortunately the people who support labor, the

(02:37):
working class do need that payment. FRAS has been making
political hay on this and Starmer's been basically forced into
a very embarrassing climbdown. So they now need to find
two and a half billion dollars to fund it.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Listen, Inda, I feel uncomfortable about this. Who has told
Gary Lineka that he can't speak at this memorial service.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
So Lineker, the England X soccer player and very famous
broadcaster now from the BBC, who has just quit the BBC.
He was lifelong friends with a sportswriter called Brian Glanville,
who was one of the best writers. I used to
read him when I was a kid in Ireland. He's
passed away at the age of ninety three. There is
a memorial service coming up now. Brian Glanville was Jewish.

(03:19):
His daughter decided that she would like Gary Lineker to
speak at the memorial service, and now the sun has
come out and said categorically not, we can't have him speaking.
My father was a proud friend of Israel and what
Lineker retweeted the other week with the Ratamoji was basically
symbolic of the Nazis in the nineteen thirties and forties.
So Lineker won't be speaking at the memorial service. I

(03:41):
think it's a great shame because Gary is such a
kind man. He is not anti Semitic. I think, like
a lot of us, he has very serious concerns about
what Israel is doing in Gaza, and he has spoken
up and raised his voice. But unfortunately, the son of
Brian Landville believes that it would be the wrong thing,
and ultimately it's a family service for his dad's so
he gets the call. But it's a shame for Gary

(04:03):
because I think Gary's getting such an awful backlash for
something which he has apologized for and said it was
Had he seen that Emogi, he would not have retweeted
it too right.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I mean, as you say, it is his call, but
the divisions continue. Enda, thank you very much, really appreciate.
We'll chat you in a couple of days. Enjoy your
break being home, Enda Brady, UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
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