Winter fuel payments: Just one Labour MP rebels in Commons vote on policy
Just one Labour MP – Jon Trickett – rebelled against the government in a House of Commons vote on plans to means test the winter fuel payment to pensioners.
The government won the vote with 348 votes in favour to 228 against, while some MPs – including 53 Labour members – abstained on the ballot, meaning they did not cast a vote.
However, it is not immediately apparent which MPs abstained on the Conservative motion on principle and who were unable to vote due to other commitments outside of Parliament.
Several Labour MPs who were already suspended for voting against the government on an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap earlier this summer also backed restoring the winter fuel allowance to all pensioners.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, along with Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, and Zarah Sultana, voted with the Tory motion, while former leader Jeremy Corbyn and the four new pro-Gaza MPs who make up the Independent Alliance joined them.
Among the abstentions were Labour’s ‘mother of the House’ Diane Abbott, Home Office minister Diana Johnson, and York MP Rachael Maskell, who warned in a Telegraph piece that elderly people could die from low temperatures during cold weather.
Explaining his vote, Trickett wrote: “I fear that removing the payment from pensioners will mean that many more will fall into poverty this winter. We know the consequences of pensioner poverty are devastating. It can even be a matter of life and death.”
He said he had “worked behind the scenes to try and change the government’s position, but to no avail”, adding: “I will sleep well tonight knowing that I voted to defend my constituents.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the measure in July, saying it was a bid to plug a £22bn hole in the government’s finances.
Limiting the universal £300 payment to the poorest pensioners – those claiming pension credit or means tested benefits – is expected to cut the cost by around £1.5bn this year.
But Sir Keir Starmer’s government has faced its first political crisis over the issue, which saw critics of the move outraged and opponents of the decision call a vote in Parliament.
Speaking ahead of the debate, Conservative leadership candidate Mel Stride argued against the decision to means test the payment, stating: “This is an absurd policy which [Labour’s] own plans are actually actively working against, and the haste with which this has been carried out is simply jaw-dropping.
“We do not know what the impact will be across the income distribution. Every member of this House does not know what the impact will be within their own constituency.”
Labour MP Meg Hillier, the newly appointed chairwoman of the Treasury Committee, told the Commons: “The decision we are asked to make today is a difficult one, but sadly, it is not going to be the only difficult decision that faces this new Labour government.”
But she urged the government to commit to a long-term review of cut-off points for benefits such as winter fuel, adding: “For the record, I want this government to commit to tackling those cliff edges because that’s what progressive policy and taxation policy will look like.
“And I know from bitter experience… that rushed laws tend to be bad laws.”