Labour delegates BOO as vote on winter gasoline allowance axe is delayed

Labour delegates booed today as a showdown vote on the winter fuel allowance was delayed until Wednesday. 

Unions have been trying to force a debate at Liverpool on the controversial move to strip 10million pensioners of up to £300 a year.

But the timing has now been pushed back after intense wrangling on the party’s organising committee – with claims the schedule is ‘too busy’ for a debate this afternoon.

Instead the clash – which the leadership is resigned to losing – is likely to take place after the PM has given his keynote speech. And Sir Keir will not even be present as he is due to be travelling to the UN general assembly.

As the session opened this morning, Lynne Morris, who chairs the conference arrangements committee (CAC), was heckled as she said: ‘This is a really busy conference and we are trying to accommodate as much as we can, and I’m going to take this back straight to CAC and I’ll come back to you with an answer ASAP.’

As the session opened this morning, Lynne Morris, who chairs the conference arrangements committee (CAC), was heckled over the winter fuel debate timing

Rachel Reeves has again insisted there will be no U-turn on the winter fuel cut, pointing to a claimed £22billion ‘black hole’ in the government finances

Activists were then admonished from the stage for booing. 

The spat has been intensified by the backlash over Sir Keir, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and other senior figures accepting ‘freebies’ including clothes, tickets and holidays.

But Ms Reeves has again insisted there will be no U-turn on the winter fuel cut, pointing to a claimed £22billion ‘black hole’ in the government finances. 

Unite’s Andy Green said: ‘This is simply an attempt to take out the debate on the winter fuel allowance. 

‘Today is economy day at conference and we have the Chancellor speaking and a composite motion on the growth mission, which is scheduled for this morning.

‘So, it is more of a surprise, in fact an outrage, to us that the composite motion from Unite and the CWU on economy for the future is not listed on the agenda for today.

‘It is disrespectful to our members and every single delegate here and conference itself, who voted for the priorities ballot.’

CWU’s senior deputy general secretary Tony Kearns questioned why the motion was not scheduled and why it has been briefed that ‘it’s unlikely to be scheduled for debate this week’.

The conference clash – which the leadership is resigned to losing – is likely to take place after the PM has given his keynote speech

In a round of interviews this morning, Ms Reeves said she had not ‘expected’ or ‘wanted’ to make changes to winter fuel payments.

She told the BBC’s Today programme on Radio 4 this morning that ‘I was not planning to make these changes to winter fuel payment.

‘These were not changes that I expected to make or wanted to make, but when faced with a situation when there’s a £22 billion black hole – not some year in the future – but this year in the public finances, it requires difficult decisions.’