Cutting winter fuel payments is wrong for both moral and practical reasons - Charlie Dewhirst

I am a proud Yorkshireman, and I want what’s best for my constituency: it’s where I grew up. Labour's decision will mean over 23,000 pensioners in Bridlington & The Wolds alone are set to lose out on the Winter Fuel Payment. That's not a change they knew about when they were budgeting for this winter and that's not what they heard Labour say during the election campaign.

That is not right, and I and the Conservatives will oppose this change however we can.

Labour MPs and Ministers have stereotyped some pensioners as millionaires who can forgo this unnecessary payment. But we all know that isn’t the case. Many of the 23,000 will have to turn the heating off this winter as temperatures plummet across Yorkshire.

As my Parliamentary post bag can attest, this is an issue that has cut through almost every level. People young and old are incensed. That is because how we treat people who have worked hard all their lives and paid into the system says a lot about who we are as a society.

On top of the moral duty to pensioners who have helped build this country and have worked hard all their lives, there is a practical reason to support them too. Pensioners cannot earn more money, they can’t work another job or more hours and most are completely dependent on their pension.

Furthermore, many have intense caring responsibilities and face extra expenses, such as the challenge of keeping a home warm throughout the day because of frailty and ill-health. They need and deserve our support but all they have received instead has been mealy mouthed platitudes from this Labour government.

I am proud of what the Conservatives have done for pensioners over the last 14 years. The ‘Triple Lock’ was introduced to give security and dignity in retirement meaning the State Pension has risen by £3,700 since 2010. At the last election we went further, promising a new ‘Triple Lock Plus’ to guarantee that no one would pay income tax on their State Pension.

Clearly, the Labour Party has chosen a different path. Elderly people have been shoved to the back of the queue by this new Government, seemingly determined to pick a fight with pensioners at any cost.

Some pensioners will now be faced with the choice between heating and eating. Throughout the election, when Labour needed pensioners’ votes, they reassured voters that there were ‘no plans’ to change benefits to pensioners. However, the speed at which they’ve enacted this drastic change suggests otherwise.

These elderly people who are now dreading the coming winter have every right to feel betrayed. If they had known Labour would take away their fuel payment, they could have voted to stop them. But now, we are at the mercy of the new Government.

Sir Keir Starmer dresses this up as a choice he ‘had to make’, one he didn’t want to. But that can’t be true - it is merely a cowardly attempt at passing the buck.

If there was not enough money for our pensioners, then where has the money come from to give train drivers, already on £65,000 a year plus bonuses, a bumper pay rise? Or where has the money come from to save 66,000 civil service jobs that we had planned to cut? Or where has the money come from to spend £8.3bn on an energy company that won’t produce any energy?

The basic unfairness of pensioners on £11,500 a year sacrificing their Winter Fuel Payment, whilst doling out no-strings attached pay rises like they’re going out of fashion is a pill too bitter to swallow.

Worse still, bills are set to rise this winter with the price cap going up too. This double whammy totals over £500, which is simply unaffordable for pensioners on the poverty line and who have no way of topping up their income.

To make matters worse, it has been revealed that the Government did not even carry out a full impact assessment. That means that, whilst they marched Labour MPs through to vote for this callous policy, they don’t even know the extent to the hardship they will cause the millions of pensioners set to lose this payment.

Furthermore, the cliff edge of pension credit this government has selected as the qualifying means test is an arbitrary one which will leave many retirees out in the cold this winter. Many who are entitled to pension credit do not claim it but will still lose out on the payments. The Government has snuck out that five in every six pensioners living below the poverty line will have their allowance removed. It also emerged that disabled retirees, who need to use more electricity if they have complex care needs, are set to lose out in their droves. Worst of all, according to Labour’s own research, around 4,000 pensioners could die this winter because of this policy.

The lack of any notice, compensatory measures or a basic duty of care that has gone into this policy is truly breathtaking.

I will do the right thing for my constituents in Bridlington & The Wolds and continue to oppose this heartless decision. I hope Labour MPs join me, and they see sense before the cold weather sets in and people begin to suffer.

Charlie Dewhirst is the Conservative MP for Bridlington and The Wolds.