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Sir Keir Starmer has said his government is “going to have to be unpopular” as he defended his decision to scrap winter fuel payments for 10mn pensioners, ahead of a vote on the issue on Tuesday.
The UK prime minister insisted the move was necessary to shore up the public finances, but refused to confirm whether potential Labour rebels would be stripped of the party whip.
A backlash among Labour MPs has grown as a number of party grandees joined criticism of the plan to end winter fuel payments — worth £200 or £300 depending on individual circumstances — for all but the poorest pensioners. Officials estimate this will save the Treasury £1.5bn.
Ten Labour MPs have signed a non-binding early-day motion calling for the measure to be delayed, arguing it has not undergone a proper impact assessment.
While new MPs are usually highly obedient as they strive to impress party bosses, it was recently elected Labour MP Neil Duncan-Jordan, who won his Poole seat with a majority of just 18 votes, who proposed the motion. Two fellow new Labour parliamentarians have signed the motion, in a sign of the strength of feeling on the issue.
On Saturday another Labour MP became the latest backbencher to announce they would not vote with the government. Rosie Duffield said she could “absolutely not” support the move.
Despite growing clamour to rethink the policy, Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, have stood firm.
“We’re going to have to be unpopular — and tough decisions are tough decisions,” Starmer said on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show.
Health secretary Wes Streeting also argued on Sunday that the move was essential to “balance the books”, but expressed regret, conceding he was “not remotely happy about it”.
He admitted ministers were enduring “political pain” over the plan, but hoped pensioners angered by the move would acknowledge that “this isn’t a government that ducks difficult decisions or pretends you can spend money you don’t have”.
Speaking on Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips show, Streeting gave notice that other cohorts will feel the impact of “difficult choices” that will be unveiled in the Budget and spending review on October 30. “It’s not just pensioners,” he said.
In July, Starmer took a hardline stance against party rebels who voted against his administration on an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap, suspending seven Labour MPs from the parliamentary party for six months.
However, he refused to confirm on Sunday whether potential rebels would face the same fate and be stripped of the whip if they mounted a revolt or abstained on Tuesday, insisting it was a “matter for the chief whip”.
Starmer said he was “not going to apologise” for taking tricky decisions, but insisted he recognised “how difficult” some people — including pensioners — were finding cost of living struggles.
He vowed that increases to the state pension under his government would “outstrip any reduction in the winter fuel payment”, on account of the triple lock — under which the state pension rises each by whichever is highest of inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5 per cent.
Nonetheless, a growing chorus of senior Labour figures have urged him to rethink his plan.
Former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls raised doubts about the proposal last week, suggesting the government needed an “escape route”. Lord David Blunkett, former Labour home secretary, meanwhile hit out at the decision in a private meeting of party peers.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats oppose the cut, as do several trade unions.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of the union Unite, is urging the government to keep funding winter fuel payments by instigating a wealth tax on the richest 1 per cent, accusing Labour in a recent interview with the BBC of “picking the pockets of pensions . . . instead of making those with the broadest shoulders pay”.
Unite, with backing from the RMT transport workers’ union, has tabled a motion at the annual gathering of the Trades Union Congress in Brighton this week that also calls for looser fiscal rules, higher public investment spending, further tax increases and a “proactive” industrial strategy that would include more public ownership.
Meanwhile Usdaw, the shop workers’ union, is calling for the government to scrap the two-child benefits cap as part of broader reforms to the welfare system.
Paul Nowak, the TUC’s secretary-general, is set to strike a more supportive note, saying in an address to congress that “no government can put right 14 years of Tory chaos overnight” but that Labour has “the interests of working people at heart in the way that the Conservatives never did”.
