London MPs including Diane Abbott have joined Commons moves challenging axing winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.
Ms Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, have signed an Early Day Motion highlighting concerns over Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to restrict the special fuel payment for pensioners to just those receiving pension credit.
Veteran Left-winger Ms Abbott told the BBC’s World Tonight: “It’s ill-thought-out, it’s not been researched, it’s not been reviewed.
“They are doing it to look tough. It’s wrong to play games at the expense of the poorest pensioners just to look tough.”
She stressed: “This is an incidence where we have to think about our constituents above our party.
“We have all had hundreds and hundreds of letters about it.”
She added that she would not support the Government on the cuts and was considering whether to abstain or vote against the move.
But former Work and Pensions Secretary Lord Hutton rejected Ms Abbott’s analysis.
He backed the Government’s action given the state of the public finances and for the targeting of benefits.
“This is a justifiable decision and I really do not think that this is a case of the Government playing games or trying to look tough,” he added.
He warned that the row over winter fuel payments was the “first of many” difficult decisions that Labour MPs would have to make and that governing in this Parliament, given the state of the public finances, would be “very, very difficult”.
The EDM is also backed by John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, and Apsana Begum, MP for Poplar and Limehouse.
Former shadow Chancellor Mr McDonnell and Ms Begum were both Labour MPs before being suspended from the parliamentary party in July after voting against the Government on an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
The new motion, tabled by Poole MP Neil Duncan-Jordan, calls for the restriction on winter fuel payments to be postponed.
It has been backed by 36 MPs including 17 Labour backbenchers.
Mr McDonnell, who now sits as an independent MP, said he was prepared to vote against the Government on Tuesday.
He told LBC: “I said to my whip, because even though I’ve lost the whip I still have to abide by the whip... could you tell Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves to bring something seriously before that vote, which demonstrates actually that here’s a way of managing this that isn’t going to impact upon people in my constituency who are facing hardship, bring something forward and I’m happy to allow this to go through in a revised form.
“But if that doesn’t happen by Tuesday, I will vote against. I can’t do anything else.”
Unions also criticised limiting winter fuel payments.
From this autumn, older people in England and Wales not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will not get winter fuel payments, worth between £100 and £300.
The Commons motion, against the payment limits, states: “This House expresses its concern that The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2024 are being introduced without prior consultation or an impact assessment, nor with sufficient time to put in place a proper and effective take-up campaign for Pension Credit.
“Notes this approach fails to take account for those people with modest incomes that are just above the entitlement threshold for Pension Credit; further notes the worrying annual excess winter death figures among pensioners.
“Recognises the impact a sharp rise in the energy price cap of 10% from 1 October will have on pensioners which will not be helped by introducing a bureaucratic and unpopular means test which undermines the benefits of universalism when older people have higher energy costs due to comorbidities and poor housing insulation.”
Many London Labour MPs are unhappy about axing the winter fuel payment but may not oppose the Government.
Restricting winter fuel payments was unexpected and unwanted for all Labour MPs
— Rupa Huq MP (@RupaHuq) September 9, 2024
I'm getting numerous emails and am feeding in concerns but at present millionaires get this who dont need it. With dire Tory inheritance there is an argument for better targeting as I said @itvlondon pic.twitter.com/eKO26KkbLh
Brent West Labour MP Barry Gardiner is planning to vote with the Government but with the expectation that ministers will later find a way to “soften the cliff edge” of the policy so more pensioners retain the winter fuel payments.
Rupa Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, tweeted: “Restricting winter fuel payments was unexpected and unwanted for all Labour MPs
“I'm getting numerous emails and am feeding in concerns but at present millionaires get this who dont need it. With dire Tory inheritance there is an argument for better targeting...”
The six London Liberal Democrat MPs, Sir Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton), Sarah Olney (Richmond Park), Paul Kohler (Wimbledon), Munira Wilson (Twickenham), Luke Taylor (Sutton and Cheam), and Bobby Dean (Carshalton and Wallington) have signed another motion opposing the restriction on the winter fuel payments.
Some 50 Labour MPs may refuse to back the Government over limiting the winter fuel payment in a vote on Tuesday, but far fewer are expected to actually vote against it, with the bulk more likely to abstain or not turn up.
Sir Keir Starmer has argued that the move, as well as possible tax rises and further cuts in the Budget in the autumn, is being forced on the Labour Government by a £22 billion black hole in the public finances which it inherited from the Tories.
The Tories have stressed that the new Government is axing money from pensioners while giving inflation-busting pay rises to public sector workers, including junior doctors.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson, who clashed with ITV’s Good Morning presenter Susanna Reid on Monday over the controversial plan, said she was "not surprised" at the reaction to the Government's decision to means test winter fuel payments.
She told the BBC: "I understand for many MPs this is a really hard decision.
"I myself have had lots of constituents contact me, so I know how difficult this is.
"The winter fuel allowance, we know is not a targeted benefit at the moment but it's going to be targeted and that's why it's so important that the poorest pensioners are getting everything they're entitled to to support them."
The Prime Minister, though, emphasised that the Government was having to make “tough choices” to sort out the public finances.
He told the BBC: “We’re going into a vote. I’m glad we’re having a vote, because I think it’s very important for Parliament to speak on this.
“But every Labour MP was elected in on the same mandate as I was, which was to deliver the change that we need for the country over the time we’ve got in office.
“I’m absolutely convinced that we will only deliver that change, I’m absolutely determined we will, if we do the difficult things.
“Now, I know they’re unpopular, I know they’re difficult. Of course they’re tough choices.”
Rosie Duffield, the Labour MP for Canterbury, is among the party’s backbenchers who have said they will not vote with the Government when the measure to limit the winter fuel allowance comes to the Commons on Tuesday.
Other Labour MPs have urged the Government not to go forward with the move by signing the Commons motion from Mr Duncan-Jordan.
Some 11 Labour MPs are among the 27 who have signed the Early Day Motion which describes the plan as “a bureaucratic and unpopular means test” for pensioners.
Seven of the party’s MPs had the whip removed for voting to scrap the two child benefit cap.
Sir Keir said whether or not Labour MPs will be suspended from the party for voting against cuts to winter fuel payments is “a matter for the chief whip”.
