Last week we saw the first major financial decision by the new Chancellor in Westminster, and it is safe to say that it was incredibly disappointing.

Let me be clear, the fact that the country’s finances are in a difficult way should come as no surprise.

Labour Ministers had months of meetings with treasury staffers to brief them on the state of the economy.

We have had to deal with a once in a generation pandemic and the costs incurred by supporting lives and livelihoods.

We then had to deal with Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the rising cost of living.

The truth is that increasing inflation was not a phenomenon unique to the United Kingdom.

But the economy has recovered thanks to the hard work of the previous Conservative Chancellor.

When Labour left office in 2010, the country’s finances were in dire straits, yet now they have inherited the fastest growing economy in the G7 thanks to decisions taken by the previous administration.

The fact that inflation has come down to 2% and the Bank of England has cut rates to 5% is proof that the Conservative economic plan was working.

I am incredibly disappointed by the decision to axe the Winter Fuel Payments for our elderly population.

Just two months ago, Sir Kier Starmer criticised the Conservative Government claiming that they were going to scrap the scheme, however now he has applauded his Chancellor for doing exactly that.

This seems to be a recurring theme from a Prime Minister who seems to change his mind frequently.

Thanks to the Chancellor’s decision making, up to 71,000 pensioners in South-east Wales could lose up on almost £21 million worth of financial support.

This policy has been met with a lot of criticism from a wide variety of people including The Older People’s Commissioner for Wales who has urged the Chancellor to rethink this new policy.

With energy prices set to rise by 10 per cent this October, our elderly population will be certainly faced with a harsh winter.

I have given the benefit of the doubt to the new Labour Government, and truly wanted them to succeed in improving the lives of people across the United Kingdom, however this direction of travel is incredibly worrying.

I fear that hard working families across the country are in for higher taxes which I know is not what the people of Wales would have wanted.

Peter Fox is the Senedd Member for Monmouth. All Gwent's MSs are invited to write a regular column for the Argus.