It’s fair to say that the honeymoon period is over for Labour’s Keir Starmer. The air of optimism that greeted his election as Prime Minister in July now seems a long. long time ago. The chief reason for this is the introduction of means-testing regarding the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.

It is hard to believe that Starmer, his cabinet and his advisors predicted the level of vitriol that has greeted this decision from all quarters. Had they been able to foresee the controversy, I doubt whether they would have gone ahead with it. The reality is, they should never have considered taking the winters fuel allowance off pensioners in the first place because it is making the vulnerable pay for the mistakes of the superrich. Elderly people will be going cold this winter as a result of this policy whilst the richest in society have been left untouched. That is immoral in the view of Plaid Cymru and many, many ordinary people.

The level of anger has been palpable during street surgeries I have conducted in recent weeks. “Absolutely shameful” and “I’ll have to keep the heating off this winter” are some of the comments that I and my team have picked up knocking doors over the summer recess. Now that parliamentary business is back up and running in the Senedd this week, I and my Plaid Cymru colleagues will be holding the Labour Government this side of the M4 to account. It will make for some difficult plenary sessions as the new First Minister Eluned Morgan will inevitably come under pressure for the draconian measures her party colleagues in Government in Westminster have implemented.

I will be looking to see how Wales can possibly mitigate against Labour’s winter fuel payment cuts. A big motivation for devolution a quarter of a century ago was so that Wales could have a shield against the kind of Tory cuts we endured in the 1980s and 90s. Little did we know back then that it would act as a shield against a regressive Labour Government.