Winter fuel payment cuts: The first big test for Keir Starmer’s government?
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A vote will be held this week on the Labour government’s controversial plans to cut winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners, with many Labour MPs expected to abstain in protest.
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Time to read: 3 mins
In brief...
- Keir Starmer and his government have promised ‘tough decisions’ since coming to power, blaming a huge deficit in public finances left by the Tory government.
- Pensioners are the first to be targeted, with cuts in the number eligible for help paying to heat their homes.
- Ed Davey, leader of the Lib Dems, is among critics of the plan, saying it is the “wrong thing to do”.
Why are Labour's proposed winter fuel payment cuts so controversial?
What’s the story?
Shortly after his landslide victory back in July’s general election, Starmer announced cuts to the winter fuel payments given to pensioners to heat their homes.
The winter fuel payment was introduced in 1997 to help elderly people with their energy bills.
More than 10 million OAPs will lose the £200-£300 payments they previously received. Going forward, only pensioners eligible for – and who have previously claimed – pension credit will receive the winter fuel payments.
Keir Starmer has repeatedly blamed a £22 billion “black hole” inherited from the previous Conservative government for this cut, and any future “tough decisions” his government is forced to make.
There have been calls for Starmer to be “big enough and brave enough” to reverse the decision.
Keir Starmer: Things can only get worse
Why has this decision been so controversial?
Critics of the government's plan to cut the winter fuel payments have repeatedly claimed it could impact some of the most vulnerable in society.
There have been calls for tougher taxing on the top 1% of UK earners instead.
A vote will be held on Tuesday 10 September, and it has been reported that up to 50 MPs could abstain from the vote.
Seven Labour MPs were suspended from the party in July 2024 when they voted against the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Any Labour MPs voting against the government could face similar repercussions, and simply not voting is seen as the safer way to indicate disagreement, without putting their parliamentary role in jeopardy.
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, tells The News Agents that cutting winter fuel payments for pensioners is "the wrong thing to do".
"There is no doubt that Conservatives ran a shocking approach to our economy and our public finances," Davey told Lewis Goodall.
"I think that is indisputable. I don't think that requires a winter fuel allowance to be abolished for the vast majority of pensioners.
"There are millions of pensioners who are struggling to get by. For them, the cost of living is still very much a real thing."
On top of this, Ofgem is raising the energy price cap in October, meaning every home will pay an extra 10% on their bills, on average.
But Starmer's decision has been supported by MPs such as Wes Streeting, who says it's "not just pensioners" the government will hit with its money-saving policies.
"We’ve got a budget and the spending review coming up, there are difficult choices coming and we’re going to have to look carefully at how we make sure we can build the future for our country," the Health Secretary says.
The News Agents take
Taking away benefits from pensioners, even rich ones, poses political challenges as it's often perceived as deeply unfair by the public.
"Pensioners, like puppies, are sort of ring fenced in the public imagination," Emily says.
"You cannot take away anything, even from rich elderly people, because somehow that's seen as deeply disrespectful, as deeply divisive, as uncaring."
That's why, Lewis suggests, the Conservatives have never made winter fuel cuts.
"The Tories are more reliant on [elderly] people as part of their voter base."
"The power of the grey vote is very significant, not just electorally, but emotionally, and within the press as well, the Daily Mail are going for this in a really, really big way, in a way that we do not see, frankly, any kind of countervailing equivalent for younger voters. Whether it's tuition fees, or whether it's covid Catch up or anything like that".
Although, as Lewis says, the cuts Starmer and Reeves are making on winter fuel payment are relatively modest in terms of what they'll save financially through it, the Prime Minister and Chancellor are intent - even announcing the cut earlier than they necessarily needed to, in the October budget.
It could be that Starmer wants to prove a point.
"Are Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves setting up this fight to prove what he's been saying all along?" Emily asks, "that he's not trying to be popular, that he's going to make hard choices, that the way to show that you're serious about change is actually changing things."
Those hard choices have caused controversy within the party, with some Labour MPs set to abstain from the vote.
"I think they've been taken aback by the strength of feeling from from labor MPs" says Lewis.
"I think it's fair to say very few Labour MPs, if any, go into politics to take away benefits or to take away kind of extensions of the welfare state, right? They don't do that. That's not what labor MPs are interested in. So they didn't want, in an ideal world, to be voting on taking away something for pensioners."
Listen in full on The News Agents.
