Winter fuel payment U-turn not enough to win back support, Labour MPs say
The government is under increasing pressure from its backbenchers to reverse winter fuel cuts amid warnings that even a U-turn would not go far enough to restore trust with voters.
There is talk that senior government officials are reconsidering government’s earlier decision to restrict winter fuel payments to pensioners who qualify for income-related benefits, which would block 9 million from claiming the allowance.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson denied that there will be “a change to the government’s policy,” despite some of the most vocal opponents to government’s curbs on the winter fuel allowance coming from within the Labour Party.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said voters “aren’t happy” with the winter fuel allowance cuts, and polling backs this up, even with assurances they would save the Exchequer £1.4 billion.
York Central MP Rachael Maskell told CityAM that a “U-turn” on government’s decision on winter fuel payments or adjusting the threshold will not be enough to win back support: “they would have to follow with other decisions like not going ahead with [Personal Independence Payments] and [Universal Credit] cuts to disabled people to show that they have understood the culture change which is needed to start rebuilding trust with the public.”
Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent West, said: “The cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance were such a political turning point because they damaged those who were most vulnerable, the most. It showed that the leadership of the party had lost their political – and some would say moral – compass.”
Gardiner added that “raising the threshold above £11,500 is not the answer, neither economically or politically. Setting an arbitrary new threshold is no use. The government must create a policy everyone can accept as fair.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has called the winter fuel payment cuts a “terrible mistake,” and the Conservatives have also spotted a political opportunity in Labour MPs breaking from the party line.
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: “After losing a key by-election, Labour is now scrambling to rethink their disastrous mistake.”
Stride added that “Labour’s decision to cut Winter Fuel Payments for millions of pensioners was reckless, cruel and out of touch. The Chancellor left our elderly struggling to heat their homes, at the same time as spending millions on inflation-busting pay rises for the unions and hotels for illegal immigrants.”