A NEW Labour prime minister addressing the TUC two months after sweeping to power might expect a hero’s welcome.

Instead, Keir Starmer’s trip to Brighton is overshadowed by anger at his government’s decision to remove winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners.

Ministers’ attempts to defend this cruel cut, accompanying another looming rise in energy costs, have bordered on the absurd, with economists deriding Commons leader Lucy Powell’s claim that it helped avert a possible run on the pound.