Government says it will not ‘water down’ winter fuel payment squeeze

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves will not “water down” the decision to strip winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners despite a revolt by Labour MPs and warnings about the impact it will have on the elderly.

Chancellor Ms Reeves insisted it is “absolutely right” to means-test the benefit, worth up to £300, in order to address the “black hole” in the public finances.

Despite the opposition to the measure, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said there are no plans to scale back the policy.

The plan cleared the Commons on Tuesday with just one Labour rebel voting against it but dozens of MPs on the Government benches were missing in action.

The decision means that only those on Pension Credit or some other benefits in England and Wales will receive the payment, saving the Exchequer around £1.5 billion a year.

Ms Reeves told broadcasters: “We faced a situation when I became Chancellor that there was a £22 billion black hole in the public finances this year.

“That meant we had to make difficult decisions, tough decisions, to get a grip of those public finances so that we could bring stability back to the economy.

“These weren’t decisions that I wanted to make. They weren’t decisions that I expected to make, but in the circumstances that we faced it was absolutely right to make sure that our public finances were on a firmer footing.

“Because only through doing that do we have the chance to bring stability back to our economy and start to grow the economy after 14 years of stagnation.”

The Government has so far resisted pressure to publish an assessment of the impact of restricting winter fuel payments, with outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak joining calls for the details to be released at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

Downing Street declined to comment on whether the impact assessment would be published in due course, while the Prime Minister’s press secretary insisted the Government had “operated with openness and transparency” on the policy.

On Tuesday MPs voted 348 to 228 to reject a Conservative bid for the controversial policy to be blocked.

However, one Labour backbencher, Jon Trickett, opposed the Government in supporting the Tory motion, while 52, including seven ministers, had no vote recorded.

A dozen of those did not have permission to miss the vote and are thought to have abstained in protest at the policy.

Fifteen of the Labour MPs who signed a motion which called on the Government to delay implementing the cut were among those who did not vote.

It is understood that those who defied the whip, including those who abstained without permission, will face disciplinary action from the Labour whips.

Mr Pennycook said there will be no U-turn on the policy despite the opposition from campaigners and some in his own party.

The housing minister told Sky News that “all of us took that decision with an extremely heavy heart” but “we’re not going to water down that policy”.

“We think it’s the right decision to make,” he said.

Asked why the Government is awarding pay increases to public sector workers, a key part of the “black hole”, he said: “What this Government has done is implement the recommendations of the independent public sector pay review bodies.

“Now, unless the opposition in Parliament are saying they would have rejected those recommendations out of hand, allowed industrial action to continue, which was extremely costly to the UK economy, they would have faced that same decision.”

Age UK’s charity director Caroline Abrahams said: “The reality is that driving through this policy as the Government is doing will make millions of poor pensioners poorer still and we are baffled as to why some ministers are asserting that this is the right thing to do.”