A PENSIONER says she is “disappointed” with Boris Johnson’s response to hearing about her tragic struggle amid the cost-of-living crisis.
The Prime Minister was challenged with 77-year-old Elsie’s case on Good Morning Britain (GMB) on Tuesday morning. She has seen her energy bill soar, forcing her to cut down to one meal a day and resort to travelling on buses throughout the day to stay out of her home and keep her bills down.
In response, the Tory leader boasted, inaccurately, about introducing the 24-hour bus pass that allowed Elsie to stay on public transport all day.
Susanna Reid, who hosted the ITV interview, gave the pensioner’s reaction while speaking later on Tuesday to LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr.
She said: “I’ve spoken to Elsie, since the interview this morning with the Prime Minister, and she says how disappointed she is with what he said.
“Because she says there are people who are even worse off than she is, and there was no answer for them, apart from ‘oh I was the person who was responsible for the bus pass,’ I mean, as if she’s supposed to be grateful.”
Andrew Marr added: “Which is by the way, not entirely accurate itself because it was the London boroughs who brought that in.”
Johnson was branded out of touch for his response to Eslie’s story.
After hearing about her circumstances on GMB, the former London mayor told Reid: “The 24-hour Freedom Bus Pass was actually something that I actually introduced.”
.@susannareid100 tells the PM about 77-year-old Elsie who eats one meal a day and stays on the bus all day to avoid using energy at home. She questions the PM about the comments he made about people having to make choices about what they spend their money on. pic.twitter.com/26b7kPuBNh
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) May 3, 2022
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In fact, The Freedom Bus Pass has in fact existed in various forms since 1973. It was reinstated while he was Mayor of London in 2012 for those aged 60 and older, though it is not valid for 24 hours. Qualification with the benefit had previously been rising in line with the retirement age. As a 77-year-old, Elsie would have been eligible regardless of Johnson's intervention.
Speaking on GMB, the Prime Minister said there are “plenty of things more that we are doing”, adding: “What we want to do is make sure that we have people who are in particular hardship looked after by their councils, so we are putting much more money into local councils.
“We have the particular payments to help elderly people in particular with the cost of heating.”
Pushed on what Elsie should cut back on, he said: “I don’t want Elsie to have to cut back on anything.”
He added: “The best answer is to help her abate the cost of energy as we are, but also… to make sure there’s a direct cut in her council tax as a result of what we’re doing.”
Johnson also raised the winter fuel allowance and other “measures that we’ve put in place to help people”.
He said the Government is “making sure that we take the steps now to invest in our energy supply” to “ensure that we have the supply for the medium and the long term”.
