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MPs have backed plans to massively scale back winter fuel support for pensioners – despite a significant chunk of the Labour benches refusing to lend their support.
The government faced a considerable rebellion on its controversial plans to means test the benefit, which would mean more than nine million pensioners losing out on between £200 and £300 each year to go towards heating their homes.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the cut was necessary to help fill a £22 billion ‘black hole’ in the country’s finances, discovered after the election.
Frontbench figures also argue it will simplify the scheme and ensure it is targeted where it’s needed most.
But several Labour MPs, including longest-serving female MP Diane Abbott, have signalled they oppose the move.
A Conservative motion in the House of Commons today criticised the government for the decision, saying it was ‘likely to lead to increased burdens on the National Health Service’.
Opposition MPs argued today that the changes to the Winter Fuel Payment were a ‘political choice’ after the government offered above-inflation pay rises to train drivers in an effort to resolve strikes.
It was unlikely that many Labour MPs who were against the decision would back a motion from the Tories, so all eyes were on the number of people who chose to abstain.
In the end, there were 228 votes in favour of the Conservative motion and 348 against.
There were 53 Labour MPs who did not register a vote – though several did so because they were unable to make it to the House of Commons for the vote – and one who voted in favour: Normanton and Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett.
In a statement released after the vote, Trickett said: ‘I fear that removing the payment from pensioners will mean that many more will fall into poverty this winter.
‘We know that the consequences of pensioner poverty are devastating. It can even be a matter of life and death.’
He added that he had ‘worked behind the scenes’ to try and change ministers’ minds, but ‘to no avail’.
Several of the figures who had the whip removed in July for voting against the government on a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped also voted for today’s Conservative motion, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell.
The cut to the benefit will mean the only pensioners in England and Wales who receive support for winter fuel will be those on Pension Credit and certain other means-tested benefits.
Ministers have urged pensioners to check whether they are eligible for Pension Credit, as a significant number of people who could claim it are not doing so.
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