Labour has no choice but to cut winter fuel payment, minister insists
Jonathan Reynolds urged MPs to ‘be the team that fixes this country’ and not ‘rely on your colleagues to make the difficult decisions’.
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Your support makes all the difference.Labour has “no choice” but to cut the winter fuel payment, a Cabinet minister insisted as he appealed to dissenting backbenchers to support the Government in a Commons vote on the policy.
Jonathan Reynolds urged MPs to “be the team that fixes this country” and not “rely on your colleagues to make the difficult decisions” as Sir Keir Starmer’s administration braces for internal unrest over the plans.
Speaking to broadcasters on Tuesday, the Business Secretary rejected suggestions that the Government’s decision to strip all but the country’s poorest pensioners of the allowance could see some die of cold this winter.
Asked whether ministers accepted this was a possibility, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “No. We are making sure that we can reassure people by saying the state pension is higher than last winter and energy bills are lower than last winter.”
Pressed on why the Government was pursuing the policy amid a mounting backlash, he told Sky News: “We have no choice.”
The full state pension is to rise by £460 from next April, according to official wage figures released on Tuesday.
But critics, including from within party ranks, have questioned why Labour is not targeting the wealthy instead of pensioners as it insists the cut is necessary to fill what it calls a “£22 billion black hole” in the public finances.
“We have a Budget coming up but we’ve made clear that taxes which we’ve inherited are already high on working people,” Mr Reynolds insisted on Tuesday.
Number 10 is holding firm against pressure to soften the policy, saying on Tuesday morning that there were no plans to widen eligibility for the payment.
Meanwhile, the Government has launched a campaign to urge all those entitled to pension credit to sign up and get access to the allowance.
Asked if mass take-up could wipe out the savings from restricting the payment, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: “It is right that anyone eligible for income-related benefits or pension credit is receiving it, and that’s why we’re making efforts to ensure that those who are eligible are converted on to it.”
The Prime Minister appeared at the TUC Congress on Tuesday, where he was warned by unions fiercely opposed to the plans not to offer “more austerity.”
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has accused Labour of “picking the pocket of pensioners”, calling instead for a wealth tax, while RMT boss Mick Lynch likened Chancellor Rachel Reeves to the Grinch over the policy.
Ms Reeves sought to quell backbench unease at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster on Monday evening, where she told MPs she was “not immune” to concerns about the cut.
A spokesperson for the Chancellor said that backbenchers showed “strong support” at the closed-doors gathering.
Some have said they feel unable to back the cut on Tuesday, but there will likely be more backbench abstentions than votes against it after the suspension of seven MPs who opposed the Government over the two-child benefit cap.
Under the plans, the winter fuel allowance for pensioners will be limited to only those claiming pension credit or other means-tested benefits.
It is expected to cut the number of people receiving the payment of up to £300 by 10 million, from 11.4 million to 1.5 million, which the Government hopes will save about £1.4 billion this year.
Money saving expert Martin Lewis said he had spoken to some MPs on Monday night and they had their “buttocks clenched” about supporting the policy and had asked him to try to change the Chancellor’s mind.
He told Times Radio that many new Labour MPs are “totally torn” about the policy.
The Tories accused Labour of having failed to “properly examine” the implications of the policy.
“This has been completely rushed. There’s no need to do this as quickly as the Government has done, other than for purely political reasons,” shadow work and pensions secretary and Conservative leadership candidate Mel Stride told Times Radio.
“And it means that the implications of this, of course, have not been properly examined in the normal way that they would be, and which is why even trade unions such as Unite has described this as picking the pockets of pensioners.”