Winter Fuel Payment: Labour MP threatens to vote against government on cuts to pensioner payment

Rachael Maskell signalled she was willing to disobey her party’s orders to vote for the measure, which will see the benefit restricted to those receiving pension credit or other means-tested benefits.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the universal payment would come to an end, blaming the so-called £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances.

Some 10 million pensioners are expected to lose out on winter fuel payments as a result, but the Government is encouraging them to apply for pension credit.

There has been growing unrest in Labour ranks about the move’s impact on pensioners just above the poverty line who will not be eligible for the payment under the new criteria.

Ms Maskell told the BBC she couldn’t vote for the cut in the Commons next week, saying: “This is bigger than a vote because this is about protecting people’s lives and ultimately that is our responsibility as MPs, to speak to truth to power.”

Asked if she would disobey a whipped vote on the matter, Ms Maskell said: “This doesn’t come in for it for me and many of my colleagues. We are just so concerned.

“I will do anything to protect life and on this occasion what I am saying to our Government is they have got the weekend to work this through, but put in some mitigation to protect the most vulnerable, not just those on pension credit but those people above the line, to ensure that they can be safe, warm and well this winter. It is imperative that they do that.”

She suggested many pensioners would face a “cliff edge set by previous governments” if they stopped receiving the payment, and argued that tweaking eligibility would “protect the NHS” from added winter pressure.

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak clashed over the matter.

Mr Sunak asked why the Prime Minister had decided to boost the pay of train drivers earning £65,000 a year while a pensioner living on £13,000 annually would lose their winter fuel payment.

Sir Keir said “no prime minister wants to do what we have to do” as he argued the “tough decision” was required to “stabilise our economy”. Tory MPs heckled Sir Keir with shouts of “shame” throughout his answers to the Commons.