Keir Starmer today batted away calls to ditch his raid on pensioners’ winter fuel payments despite a mounting Labour revolt.
The PM insisted he was making ‘tough choices’ despite anxiety on his own benches over the impact on older people on low incomes.
Speaking on a visit to a school, Sir Keir said he did not ‘want’ to take the action but was being forced due to the state of the public finances.
But the government is dodging holding a vote on the move, despite Parliament returning from its summer break today.
Labour tensions surfaced this afternoon as Poole MP Neil Duncan-Jordan tabled an early day motion urging a U-turn.
The motion – which is largely symbolic but can be signed by other politicians – says that the change is being made ‘without proper consultation’ and will hit those on ‘modest incomes’.
Mr Duncan-Jordan complains that the means test mechanism is ‘bureaucratic and unpopular’ and could leave pensioners unable to heat their homes.
Speaking on a visit to a school, Keir Starmer said he was having to take action he didn’t ‘want’ due to the state of the public finances
Tensions on the Labour benches surfaced this afternoon as Poole MP Neil Duncan-Jordan tabled an early day motion urging a U-turn
Sir Keir and Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured) have been facing a backlash over the decision to cut winter fuel payments worth up to £300 from about 10million pensioners
Sir Keir and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have been facing a backlash over the decision to cut winter fuel payments worth up to £300 from about 10million pensioners.
Commons Leader Lucy Powell sparked derision yesterday by suggesting in interviews that there could have been a run on the Pound if the benefit had not been slashed.
Charity Age UK has written to the Chancellor pleading for an alternative policy to stop around two million hard-up pensioners being deprived of the handouts.
On the visit to Orpington, Sir Keir said: ‘We have found a £22billion black hole in the economy. We’ve got to fix it.
‘What we’re not going to do is pretend it isn’t there or paper over it. That’s what the last government did and it made it worse.
‘That means we’ve got to make tough choices.
‘I don’t want to cut the winter fuel allowance … but we’ve got to fix the foundations of our economy and that’s what this is all about – making sure that we fix the foundations and then, having done that, that we can build a better future that pensioners and so many other people voted for in this election.’
The Tories and Liberal Democrats have been pushing for a parliamentary vote this week on scaling back the payments.
But a Government source said ministers would reject the call to scrutinise the measure, which has already been rushed through Parliament without a vote.
Writing in the Observer yesterday, Ms Reeves claimed that she was ‘protecting the most vulnerable pensioners’ by means testing the winter fuel payment.
‘I know these are tough choices, especially on winter fuel,’ she acknowledged. ‘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.’
Labour is to plough hundreds of millions of pounds into extending help for families this winter as it tries to fend of criticism over the cuts.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said she is extending the Household Support Fund, which allows councils to help people with cost-of-living struggles, at a cost of £421million.
Announcing the extension of the HSF today Ms Kendall said it would run in England until the end of March, which money also paid out to authorities in Scotland and Wales.
‘This funding will work to help those in need. Pensioners and others struggling with the cost of living over the colder months should contact their local council to see what support may be available to them,’ she said in a written statement to MPs.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall today announced she is extending the Household Support Fund, which allows councils to help people with cost-of-living struggles, at a cost of £421million.
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.’