A SCOTTISH Labour MP has admitted that the majority of his constituents are angry that he voted to cut the universal Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners.
Michael Shanks, a UK Government energy minister who represents Rutherglen at Westminster, told the BBC’s Sunday Show there was “no doubt” that the people who elected him were angry at how Labour had acted.
However, Shanks insisted that Labour had not made a “mistake” in deciding to cut the Winter Fuel Payment, and warned that they would be making further cuts moving forward.
Before the General Election, all pensioners could expect to receive a payment of between £100 and £300 to help cover fuel bills through the winter. However, soon after coming to power Labour cut the payment back, making it means-tested in a move which charities have warned risks pushing people into poverty.
At Westminster last week, 35 of Scotland’s 37 Labour MPs voted to support the cut, while two abstained.
Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday Show, Shanks was asked what his “email inbox [had] been like since you voted to take money away from pensioners”.
He responded: “There’s no doubt at all constituents are angry about this decision.
“I also have a number of constituents who support the decision, incidentally, but it's fair to say the majority are angry about it.”
He went on: “This is not a decision certainly we were planning at all leading up to coming into government, and it's certainly not a decision any of us wanted to make. None of us voted happily for this decision this week.
“We expected a gap between public spending and income, but this is a £22bn black hole in year spending.”
Shanks then called the previous universal Winter Fuel Payment “an extremely un-means-tested benefit”, before saying: “We want to ramp up the number of people who are eligible for a pension credit, which a third of people who are eligible don't claim it.”
Pension credit is available to anyone of pension age in England, Scotland or Wales and tops up people’s weekly income to at least £218.15 if they’re single or £332.95 if they have a partner.
Asked if cutting the Winter Fuel Payment had been the “first big unforced error by the Labour government”, Shanks insisted it had not been a mistake and said that further cuts would be coming down the line.
“I think it's been a very, very difficult week,” he told the BBC. “I think it was a challenging decision.
“I think Keir Starmer has made very clear we're not going to duck difficult decisions, and it's worth seeing in a £22 billion pound black hole, this is just part of the challenging decisions we're going to have to make.”
He added: “I don't think it's been a mistake.
“I think we could communicate the decision more clearly to be able to explain why we, in fact, have ended up where we are. But, no, I don't believe it is [a mistake].”
