Former Labour frontbencher hits out as Starmer faces backlash over winter fuel cuts

Melanie Onn has written to the chancellor asking her to consider measures to ensure older people are ‘not left in the cold this winter’

A former frontbencher has hit out at the government’s plans to strip the winter fuel payment from millions of pensioners as Sir Keir Starmer faces a growing Labour backlash over the issue.

Melanie Onn has called on ministers to consider changes to the policy to ensure older people are “not left in the cold this winter”.

Her warning comes as pressure mounts on the prime minister over the decision to remove the allowance from 10 million people, after the regulator Ofgem announced household energy bills will rise by £150 in October.

This has led to fears that bills this winter will be the highest on record for older people who were previously eligible for the cash, worth up to £300.

The chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the cuts earlier this year, saying they were necessary to fill a £22bn black hole in the nation’s finances left by the last Conservative government.

Energy bills are set to rise (PA Wire)

Under the plans, designed to save around £1.5bn this year, only those receiving pension credit or other means-tested benefits will be eligible for the payment.

In a letter to Ms Reeves, Ms Onn, a former shadow minister, said she accepted that means-testing was necessary but called for ministers to look again at what she said was a “cliff edge” many would face.

Changes could include a taper or block payments to those pensioners most in need, she suggested, as she warned of the “extreme anxiety” the issue was causing in her area.

The Labour MP for Poole, Neil Duncan-Jordan, has also tabled a Commons motion calling for the government to delay the move, saying it would result in a "bureaucratic and unpopular means test" for older people.

There have been calls to cut back the number of pensioners receiving the payments for years amid public outrage that millionaires such as business magnate and Labour peer Alan Sugar qualify.

But previous governments warned that means testing would be very expensive, potentially erasing any savings made.

Keir Starmer visited a primary school in Orpington on Monday but faced media questions about his winter fuel plan (PA)

Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch has accused ministers of being "dishonest" about the state of the public finances, and claimed Labour is trying to "pull the wool over the eyes of the British public".

But Sir Keir has defended the cuts saying they will help to “fix the foundations of our economy”.

On Monday, he hit out at Ms Badenoch’s comments saying: "I’m not going to take lectures from anyone from the previous government who left the worst possible inheritance.

"The country is in a real state, the economy has been badly damaged, nobody really argues in relation to that. There’s a £22bn black hole unaccounted for, not on the books, the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility] didn’t know about it. So, I think that what the Conservatives could do was to apologise for the mess that they made. What we’re doing is cleaning it up.”