Labour set to dam vote on plans to strip winter gas allowance

Conservatives are set to try to block Labour‘s plans to axe the winter fuel allowance for 10million pensioners – as the backlash over the controversial move grows.

The Tories and Liberal Democrats are pushing for a parliamentary vote this week on Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘ plan to scale back the payments which are worth up to £300.

But a Government source said ministers would reject the call to scrutinise the measure, which has already been rushed through Parliament without a vote.

Yesterday, Ms Reeves defended the plan as the ‘right choice’, saying that savings were needed to fill a financial ‘black hole’ left by the Tories. ‘I know these are tough choices, especially on winter fuel,’ she wrote in The Observer. ‘They were not the choices I wanted to make or expected to make but they were the right choices to put our country on a firmer footing.’

Commons Leader Lucy Powell went further, claiming that Britain could have suffered a run on the pound without the measure, which is expected to save the taxpayer about £1.5billion a year.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured) defended the plan as the ‘right choice’, saying that savings were needed to fill a financial ‘black hole’ left by the Tories.

Commons Leader Lucy Powell (pictured) claimed that Britain could have suffered a run on the pound without the measure, which is expected to save the taxpayer about £1.5billion a year

But critics pointed out that Ms Reeves unveiled additional spending of about £10billion to fund inflation-busting pay rises for public sector workers on the same day as she announced that the winter fuel allowance would be means-tested.

Opposition MPs argue the scale of the cuts mean the plan should have been subject to a parliamentary debate and vote.

However, the vote will require ministers to set aside time in Parliament and a government source said: ‘We are not going to do that.’

The source said opposition parties could use one of their occasional allotted days in Parliament to raise the issue in the future if they wanted to pursue it.

But shadow Treasury minister Laura Trott said: ‘This simply shows how desperate the Labour government is to run from responsibility for the tax rises they always planned but hid from the public during the election.

‘After handing billions in inflation-busting pay rises to their union paymasters, no one believes Labour’s ‘Chicken Little’ strategy.

They should stop trying to deceive the public with ridiculous fantasies and instead have the courage to let Parliament debate cuts to Winter Fuel Payments for the sake of those pensioners who will lose out thanks to the decisions of this Government.’

The row rumbled on as Labour’s leader Sir Keir Starmer stayed at Balmoral in Scotland as a guest of King Charles in his first visit there as Prime Minister.

There is growing unease on Labour’s benches about the plan which will impoverish most pensioners. Only those who claim pension credit – which has a maximum income threshold of less than £1,000 a month – will continue to get the payment.

Shadow Treasury minister Laura Trott (pictured) said the Labour government had hidden tax rises from the public during the election

There is growing unease on Labour’s benches about the plan which will impoverish most pensioners. Only those who claim pension credit – which has a maximum income threshold of less than £1,000 a month – will continue to get the payment (stock image)

Almost half a million people have signed a petition on the issue, launched by Age UK. Hundreds of thousands have also signed petitions from other groups.

Labour MP Rachael Maskell, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Ageing and Older People, said: ‘This is not going to go away – the Government cannot run away from it.’

Age UK has written to Ms Reeves, urging her to rethink the plans.

The charity warns that at least two million older people will face ‘severe hardship’ this winter unless she widens the eligibility criteria for the fuel payment.

Director Caroline Abrahams said: ‘If the policy is to be introduced at all, then it shouldn’t happen so quickly, and if it is to happen in the future, the pool of pensioners entitled to the payment needs to be made far wider.’

Ms Powell insisted that failure to make spending cuts to help fill the alleged £22billion ‘black hole’ could have triggered serious economic consequences.

She told Channel 4 News: ‘This is a really difficult decision, I am angry about it too. But when you are faced with the numbers just totally not adding up… we have had to take in-year decisions about what we can afford to stop a run on the pound.’

Tory peer Lord Barwell described the claim as ‘nonsense’.

Labour MP Rachael Maskell, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Ageing and Older People, said: ‘This is not going to go away – the Government cannot run away from it’

Age UK wrote to the Chancellor warning that at least two million older people will face ‘severe hardship’ this winter unless she widens the eligibility criteria for the fuel payment (Stock Image)

Director of Age UK Caroline Abrahams (pictured) said: ‘If the policy is to be introduced at all, then it shouldn’t happen so quickly, and if it is to happen in the future, the pool of pensioners entitled to the payment needs to be made far wider’

He said it was not clear that Ms Reeves had to cut spending and, even if she did, ‘there are lots of other areas where she could have made savings or ways in which she could have raised extra money. She chose to cut fuel payments for most pensioners’. 

Dennis Reed, of campaign group Silver Voices, said older people were ‘incredibly angry’ at the raid on their incomes at a time when fuel bills are rising again.