Winter fuel payments cut is just the start of difficult decisions to come, Rachel Reeves warn
RACHEL Reeves has warned Labour MPs threatening to rebel over winter fuel payments that “there are more difficult decisions to come”.
The Chancellor and PM have refused to water down their plan to strip nine million OAPs of the benefit — as union bosses accused them of “picking the pockets of pensioners”.
Sir Keir Starmer now faces his biggest rebellion as PM, with up to 50 Labour MPs threatening not to vote with the government in a Commons showdown today.
But the protest vote will likely fall flat given the scale of Labour’s majority.
Last night Ms Reeves told Labour MPs that the elderly can afford to lose the benefit as the triple lock “means pensioners have £900 more in their pockets than they did a year ago”.
And she urged critics to hold their fire as things will get even rougher, adding: “I don’t say that because I relish it. I don’t.
“But it is a reflection of the inheritance that we face.”
Union bosses slammed the £1.5billion raid on the £200-£300 benefit previously paid to all over-65s.
Meanwhile, bungling Home Office minister Dame Diana Johnson was slapped down after suggesting the Treasury was lining up cash to ease pensioners’ pain.
No10 said the Cabinet was united in the “tough decision” to help fix “the foundations of the economy”.
A spokesman for Ms Reeves said there are no plans to offer concessions to OAPs ahead of today’s vote.
At a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, one backbench MP raised the issue of changing the pension credit threshold to ensure more OAPs received the cash.
Critics say the winter fuel payment cut unfairly targets the elderly and will have little impact on balancing the books.
Age UK warn that up two million pensioners “who badly need the money to stay warm this winter will not receive it”.
TOUGH TUESDAY
By Ryan Sabey
Sir Keir Starmer has been in the top job for just two months – but Tuesday will be one of the toughest yet.
The Prime Minister will find out how many of his own MPs really believe in the way he is executing his plan to fix the economy.
Sir Keir and his iron-fist Chancellor Rachell Reeves are adamant there is no u-turn coming on the decision to axe winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners.
But an important – if not crunch – vote will take place showing his own grip on the party.
Word amongst his own MPs is to watch how many abstentions there are among Labour MPs.
One MP told me earlier that abstaining is the only way to show you don’t like a policy.
Labour MPs – especially the new ones – are frightened of the consequences of voting against the party whip for fear of being kicked out of the Parliamentary party.
Many will suddenly find a hospital appointment to attend or an urgent engagement in their constituency so they can avoid walking through the division lobbies.
Expect the number of Labour MPs voting against Sir Keir Starmer’s wishes to be actually very low.
Labour will get through tomorrow and party bosses won’t be losing any sleep.
But the anger over cutting the allowance will simply grow.
Round the corner is the Budget on October 30th.
If the noise grows much louder, let’s see whether Downing Street can hold the line for much longer.
If the pressure becomes unbearable, at that point perhaps they can offer concessions.
But for now, they are sitting tight.
By giving in to the baying mob of Labour MPs will be a desperate sign of weakness so early on in their term of office.
When they’ve promised to fix the economy, they can’t be seen to be giving in too easily, too soon.
Suspended Labour MP Richard Burgon told LBC: “I think this could result in the deaths of pensioners who can’t afford to turn the heating on.”
And the boss of Unite the Union urged the government to “do a U-turn”.
Sharon Graham added the new PM should be ‘‘big enough and brave enough” to admit the mistake.
PCS leader Fran Heathcote said the move was a “misstep” which needed to be “put right”, while TUC boss Paul Novak demanded “a rethink” from Labour.
The PM will address the TUC conference today, vowing to fix the economy while blaming the Tories.
He will warn: “When we finally saw the books, I had to be honest with people. I owed it to them to promise only what we knew we could deliver. We will keep to the course of change, fix the foundations of our economy and build a new Britain.”
TUC OAP AID PLEA
A TRADE union chief is piling pressure on Rachel Reeves to give OAPs financial help at the Budget.
Paul Nowak wants the Chancellor to compensate for scrapping the universal winter fuel allowance.
The boss of the TUC, holding its annual rally in Brighton, said: “I don’t want to see any pensioner going into winter afraid to turn on the heating.”
It comes as the Tories warn Labour’s bid to give the unions more powers could hit UK growth.