Starmer defends winter fuel payment cuts

Sir Keir Starmer has defended the abolition of winter fuel allowances for millions of pensioners, saying his Government had to take “difficult decisions to stabilise the economy”.

During Prime Minister’s Questions, Conservative leader Rishi Sunak accused Sir Keir of preferring to fund “inflation-busting pay rises” for train drivers rather than support needy pensioners.

But the Prime Minister blamed the Conservatives for leaving a “£22bn black hole” in the public finances.

From this autumn, older people in England and Wales who do not receive Pension Credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer receive the annual Winter Fuel Allowance of between £100 and £300.

The government is facing growing pressure from opposition parties to reverse the decision, while some Labour MPs have also raised concerns about the impact on low-income pensioners.

Last month, the government offered train drivers above-inflation pay rises in a bid to end a long-running strike.

Mr Sunak told the Commons: “The Government is in the business of making choices and the new Prime Minister has made a choice.

“(Sir Keir) has taken the decision to take away the Winter Fuel Allowance from low-income pensioners and give it to some unionised workers in the form of inflation-busting pay rises.

“Can I ask the Prime Minister why he chose train drivers and not unemployed British pensioners?”

In response, Sir Keir said: “This Government was elected to sort out the mess left by the party opposite, to deliver the change that the country desperately needs. Our first task was to audit the accounts and what we found was a £22bn black hole.”

He added: “So we have had to make difficult decisions to stabilise the economy and repair the damage, including targeting payments towards winter fuel while protecting pensioners.”

In response, Mr Sunak said the new government had inherited a growing economy and inflation had returned to target levels.

He called on the prime minister to “start taking responsibility for his decisions.”

“It was his decision, and his decision alone, to give a train driver earning £65,000 a pay rise of almost £10,000, and it was also his decision that a pensioner living on just £13,000 would have his winter fuel allowance taken away,” he added.

Defending the Government’s pay offers to end the strike, Sir Keir said: “You can’t fix the economy if the trains don’t work, and you can’t fix the economy if the NHS doesn’t work.”

Sir Keir also faced criticism from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who called on the Prime Minister to reverse planned spending cuts.

He cited the example of a caregiver named Norman who returned to work so he could afford to care for his wife, who has Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

Sir Ed said this meant Norman had already exceeded his pension credit limit and would therefore lose his Winter Fuel Allowance.

Sir Keir said he was “not pretending this isn’t a difficult decision” but stressed the Government was providing pensioners with all the support it could.

The Prime Minister drew attention to the government’s campaign to encourage more people to apply for the Pension Credit, so that those eligible are also entitled to winter fuel allowances.

At the same time, he added that the government’s commitment to the triple lock principle – which ensures that state pensions only rise annually by the highest of 2.5%, inflation or average earnings – means pensions are likely to rise by up to £1,000 over the next five years.

Given Labour’s huge majority in the House of Commons, the government is likely to win any vote on the issue handily.

However, a handful of Labour MPs have publicly raised concerns about the impact of the bill on pensioners whose benefits fall just above the threshold for claiming State Pension Credit.

Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York Central, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme she could not vote for the decision because she believed it would put some pensioners at risk of harm.

She called on the Government to introduce preventative measures to protect the most vulnerable and keep them warm during the winter.

Ms Maskell is one of eight Labour MPs to back a motion to defer budget cuts to deliver a “comprehensive strategy to tackle fuel poverty, healthcare inequalities and low incomes for older people”.

Five independent MPs who were suspended from the Labour Party parliament in July after voting against the government’s call to end the two-child cap have also signed the motion.