Given how aggressively Labour’s attacking the Tories for handing out a universal £400 energy bill grant – as opposed to means testing it – Guido was surprised to see Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves struggle to commit to sending that cash to a worthy cause during her appearance on TalkTV this morning. After Rishi promised to do just that on his morning media round…

Asked by Jeremy Kyle if she’d donate £400 to charity, Reeves said:

“Well, you know, I’d be happy… I already make donations to charity to ensure that I’m doing that I’m doing what I can to help people who are less well off than myself. But the point is if I were Chancellor, I wouldn’t be designing a system like this. We shouldn’t be designing a system that sees people who are the very wealthiest get as much money as those people who are just about managing… as a result, there is taxpayer money being wasted.”

Unsurprisingly, the Tories out-spending Labour has left Starmer and his team struggling for a decent attack line. Whilst Rishi’s move may be economically questionable, it’s undoubtedly left Labour gasping for oxygen politically. If the Shadow Cabinet’s main opposition is that the policy isn’t means tested, they should be the change they want to see and donate the £400 to a charity for the needy. Now we’ve got Tory backbenchers with a tax and spend leadership, and Labour backbenchers with a leadership arguing against the traditional socialist belief in universal welfare…