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Labour frontbenchers and MPs have reportedly expressed fears that chancellor Rachel Reeves’s “brutal” plan to scrap the winter fuel allowance for all but the poorest pensioners will put more older people in hospital.
Around 10 million people are expected to be directly impacted by the plans announced by the chancellor in July – prompting gasps in the House of Commons – to cut the winter fuel payments first introduced by her predecessor Gordon Brown in 1997.
The decision, made ahead of Ms Reeves’s first budget next month, will axe the payment of up to £300 for all pensioners except those in receipt of those claiming pension credit or other means-tested benefits. It comes as regulator Ofgem raises its energy price cap by 10 per cent.
The plans have sparked anger and concern across the country – close to half a million people have signed an Age UK petition calling on Sir Keir Starmer’s government to rethink its plans.
With MPs set to vote on the policy on Tuesday, Labour politicians have expressed their own grave concerns amid a flood of worried emails from constituents reported by The Independent to have shocked new MPs in particular.
In remarks to The Guardian, anonymous Labour MPs lined up to relay the sheer volume of the correspondence they have received on the issue, with one saying: “I don’t think there is a Labour MP who isn’t worried ... I’ve had more people stopping me in the street than over Brexit. Pensioners just pleading that we don’t do this.”
One cabinet source complained to the paper that the policy “hasn’t even been thought through properly”, warning: “We’re going to end up with more old people in hospital or care as a result, with all the costs involved in that.”
Another MP said: “It’s going to save us £1.5bn but that won’t be worth the political hit we’ll take this winter. The right-wing press will be full of stories about elderly people sitting in A&E or on buses because they can’t afford their fuel bills and it’s the only way they can keep warm.”
Becoming the latest Labour MP to speak out on the record, Rosie Duffield told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday: “I think all MPs have been inundated with emails. It’s not just those constituents affected – it’s also their families and people who are really concerned.”
Ms Duffield added: “I’ve had letters – I think we all have – from people who are suffering ongoing illness like cancer, and their doctors are telling them how important it is to keep warm.
“Human life is our job to protect and we know that these people are going to feel cold and it’s going to affect their health. That’s my biggest worry – that we’re going to see people dying ... it just feels particularly brutal.”
According to the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, some 4,950 excess deaths the winter before last were caused by living in cold homes.
Referencing the seven MPs who had the Labour whip removed after voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap in July, Ms Duffield said: “We’ve seen what happens when people vote against the government, which is a shame considering we have such a huge mandate.
“But I won’t be voting for this cut,” the Labour MP added. “Those of us who feel perhaps a bit more comfortable abstaining and know a bit more about being parliament are going to abstain to make the point that we’re there for our constituents more than we are for our party, I’m afraid.”
Twelve Labour MPs have now signed the early day motion set to be voted on next week calling on the government to postpone the cut.
The Treasury has been approached for comment.
