ANGELA Rayner squirmed as she was confronted with her past tweets attacking the Tories for planning to hit pensioner benefits – while she tried to defend Labour taking money from the elderly.

The Deputy Prime Minister was challenged over comments she had made in 2017, criticising the then-prime minister Theresa May for raids on pensioners which never came to pass.

In the run-up to that year’s General Election, the Tories proposed making the Winter Fuel Payment a means-tested benefit, a policy which Labour have taken up since coming to power earlier this year.

In 2017, the-then shadow chancellor John McDonnell (below), now suspended from the Labour Party, said the move risked killing around 4000 pensioners.

(Image: PA)

During an appearance on BBC Breakfast on Thursday morning, Rayner was read her tweets criticising the policy, which has now been adopted by Labour.

Defending her shifting stance, Rayner said: “Well between 2017 and that comment, and me challenging Theresa May and us getting into Government, was Liz Truss, and of course Rishi Sunak as chancellor, who crashed the economy, sent interest rates up to nearly 11%, which affects pensioners directly and left us with a £22 billion black hole.

READ MORE: Unearthed Rachel Reeves clips undermines her own Winter Fuel Payment claim

“We have to make sure that we can fiscally be responsible so that we can grow our economy so that we can pay for our public services and we said that in the run-up to the General Election.”

She said Labour had been forced to “make difficult decisions” but insisted that in the run-up to the election, the party had been “very clear” it would not “play fast and loose with the country’s finances because that’s what the Tories did and that’s why we’re in this mess in the first place”.

BBC Breakfast host Naga Munchetty (above) shot back: “In the meantime, and it’s a phrase you’ve heard before, there will be people choosing between heating and eating.

“While you deal with the public finances and the finances you’ve been left, as you say by the Conservative Government, how long will pensioners who are going without the Winter Fuel Payment need to choose between heating and eating?”

READ MORE: Rachel Reeves slammed for 'staggering hypocrisy' on austerity as old clip resurfaces

Rayner insisted Labour had “protected the most vulnerable pensioners” by ensuring the worst-off pensioners, mainly those claiming Pension Credit, were still entitled to the benefit and said the Government was seeking to boost the number of people claiming Pension Credit.

She added: “We’ve extended the household support fund, which is over £400m, through local authorities that can support pensioners who need it, who may struggle this winter and we’ve also made sure that we protected the triple-lock.

“Pensioners will know that when you lose control of the economy and interest rates go up to the levels we saw under the previous Government, that hits them the hardest.”