Letter: Winter fuel payment decision could damage entire UK but Labour still has time to correct its mistake

The Conservative decline has further to go. The choice of Liz Truss as leader was crass, and we may be about to see a spectacular encore.

So we are depending on Labour to lead, and it will need a decade to put things right. Major missteps cannot take place.

Labour should have withdrawn the WFP in England and Wales for higher rate taxpayers, taxed or otherwise reduced it for those on the basic rate, and left it intact, as it already has, for the minority in receipt of qualifying benefits.

Such a policy would be a more reasonable one for Northern Ireland and Scotland to emulate, where these are devolved matters but where, of course, complex funding issues apply.

Some will argue that this suggestion is too administratively difficult, but it almost certainly is not.

If a more tiered WFP system is put in place in England and Wales immediately, it would require an urgent administrative process this year, involving special teams to amend the computerised delivery system to reflect the new rates of payment for different groups.

Northern Ireland makes its own decisions on this, but a softening of the policy in England and Wales would restore some funding to Northern Ireland.

A steady state could be achieved by the winter of 2025/6, across the entire UK. It's disappointing that a more strategic and imaginative approach was not taken.

Labour still has time to correct its first big mistake. It would be a sign of strength not weakness.

John Gemmell, Wem, Shropshire