Firebrand union leader Sharon Graham has told Sky News that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is guilty of “picking the pockets of pensioners” by cutting winter fuel payments. 

The leader of the Unite union was speaking on the opening day of the TUC conference in Brighton, where she spearheaded demands for a wealth tax on millionaires to fund restoring the winter cash for pensioners.

“Britain is in crisis, and we need to make very, very different choices,” said Ms Graham.

“We’re calling on Labour not to pick the pockets of pensioners, but to have a wealth tax on the biggest and richest 1% in society.”

She said her proposal would create £25 billion, more than enough to fill the £22 billion “black hole” blamed by the chancellor and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for the cuts.

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“Job’s done, let’s move on and change society,” she added.

“We’re calling for the government to think again. This issue isn’t going to go away. We’re coming up to winter. People are going to be freezing cold.

“You’re going to have older people not wanting to put on their heat.”

14 years of ‘queueing for a pay rise’

On unions’ calls for pay to be restored to 2010 levels, Ms Graham said: “Workers and communities have been back of the queue for over 14 years. They’ve been right at the back of the queue. They’ve had pay freezes.

“They haven’t had pay rises in line with inflation. And the inflation is baked in. So while inflation is going up more slowly, those prices are still baked in.

“And what we’re saying, as the union movement, is that workers need to be paid properly and that is something that we should be proud of.

“We should be proud to say that workers should be paid properly. And that’s what I’m pushing for.”