GB News' Eamonn Holmes erupts at 'state of country' in rant at Labour's winter fuel raid

Eamonn Holmes attacked the Labour government's winter fuel raid during Monday morning's instalment of GB News.

Eamonn and co-host Isabel Webster discussed the possibility of Labour raising capital gains tax before the 64-year-old launched a fiery rant about "the state of the country".

He said: "Why is the government obsessed with clawing back money from all of us? They won with a massive majority and they have this huge gain in seats, so why do they then want to make themselves incredibly unpopular straight away with elderly pensioners taking away their winter fuel allowance?

“The state of this country with taxes is untrue. I mean, what is value-added tax (VAT)? Do I have value-added tax on my spectacles? No idea. Why do some things have value-added tax and some don’t?”

Isabel played devil’s advocate and suggested that the government would say: “They have picked up at this huge black hole, there are all these unfunded policies that the Conservatives had no intention of paying for and they have got to be the responsible party and sort that out.”

Eamonn hit back: “But we’ve ticked along quite nicely owing money in the past; most countries around the world owe money. Why this obsession with doing all the bad things and the hard things first?”

It comes after Chancellor Rachel Reeves warned of "tough decisions" to come as Labour says it needs to plug a £22 billion "black hole" in the public finances.

This has sparked fears of further cuts after it cut back winter fuel payments to pensioners.

There has been speculation as to which taxes could be raised in the budget after Labour committed not to increase national insurance, income tax or VAT.

Today, Sir Keir Starmer will pledge to get rid of regulation that "needlessly holds back investment". The Government says that international investment will help with its goals to create jobs, improve living standards, and make communities and families across the country better off.

The Government is expected to unveil investment deals worth billions in AI, life sciences and infrastructure at its first International Investment Summit.

In a keynote speech at the summit, Sir Keir is expected to pitch Britain as a stable bet for investors, saying he will "do everything in my power to galvanise growth including getting rid of regulation that needlessly holds back investment".

He will say: "We have a golden opportunity to use our mandate, to end chop and change, policy churn and sticking plasters that make it so hard for investors to assess the value of any proposition.

"We have the determination, the focus on clear long-term ends, a mission-led mindset that thinks in years, not the days or hours of the news grid, needed to unlock that potential. Do not doubt that.