Shouts of ‘shame’ as Starmer defends winter fuel payment cut at Prime Minister’s Questions
Sir Keir Starmer faced shouts of “shame” in the House of Commons as he defended moves to cut winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.
Conservative Party leader Rishi 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 during Prime Minister’s Questions.
Means tested
People in England and Wales not in receipt of pension credit or other means-tested benefits will lose out under the policy, which MPs are expected to vote on next week.
It is expected to reduce the number of pensioners in receipt of the up to £300 payment by 10 million, from 11.4 million to 1.5 million, saving around £1.4 billion this year.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Emma Reynolds has confirmed that an estimated 400,000 households in Wales will be affected by the change to Winter Fuel Payments.
Mr Sunak told PMQs: “Government is about making choices, and the new Prime Minister has made a choice.
“(Sir Keir) has chosen to take the winter fuel allowance away from low-income pensioners and give that money to certain unionised workforces in inflation-busting pay rises.
“So can I just ask the Prime Minister, why did he choose train drivers over Britain’s vulnerable pensioners?”
Sir Keir replied: “This Government was elected to clear up the mess left by the party opposite, to bring about the change that the country desperately needs.
“Our first job was to audit the books, and what we found was a £22 billion black hole.”
He added: “So we’ve had to take tough decisions to stabilise the economy and repair the damage, including targeting winter fuel payments whilst protecting pensioners – 800,000 pensioners are not taking up pension credit.
“We intend to turn that around.
“We’re going to align housing benefit and pension credit, something the previous government deferred year after year after year.”
Triple lock
Sir Keir also pointed to the Government’s commitment to the triple lock, which guarantees the state pension will rise by inflation, average wage growth or 2.5%.
Mr Sunak defended his record in government before adding that the Prime Minister has to “start taking responsibility for his own decisions”.
He said: “If, as he says, the public finances are a priority, it was his decision and his decision alone to award a train driver on £65,000 a pay rise of almost £10,000, and it was also his decision that a pensioner living on just £13,000 will have their winter fuel allowance removed.
“So can the Prime Minister explain to Britain’s low-income pensioners why he has taken money away from them whilst at the same time given more money to highly paid train drivers?”
Sir Keir said Labour has a “massive mandate to change the country”, adding to Mr Sunak: “If he carries on pretending everything is fine for ordinary people across the country, they’re going to be there (on the Opposition benches) for a very, very long time.”
He defended the Government’s pay offers to end strike action as he said: “You cannot fix the economy if the trains don’t work and you can’t fix the economy if the NHS isn’t working.”
Sir Keir went on to describe shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch as the “favourite” in the Tory leadership race and said the former cabinet minister had previously called for a “more sophisticated mechanism for means testing” winter fuel payments.
Mr Sunak again defended his record in government before saying: “Under the Conservative government, a low-income pensioner with just £13,000 received not only the winter fuel payment, but also hundreds of pounds of additional cost-of-living support, both of which he has now scrapped.
“Age UK have said cutting the winter fuel allowance is the wrong policy and, only this morning, we have learned that the vast majority of the poorest pensioners, pensioners in poverty, are going to see that vital support removed.
“Can he tell the House, very specifically to the pensioners that are watching, how much less support a pensioner on £13,000 will receive this winter?”
The Prime Minister replied: “No prime minister wants to do what we have to do in relation to the winter fuel allowance, but we have to take the tough decision to stabilise our economy, to ensure that we can grow it for the future.
“And as I’ve said, we are working hard on pension credit.”
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Labour could tax the billionaire owners of Amazon , Facebook, X (Twitter) ect… but prefer to target those pensioners who just scrape over the winter fuel threshold. What about cancelling Trident saving hundreds of billions. Stopping King Charles from have a 55% wage increase to his sovereign grant. Reducing the capacity of the House of Commons & House of Lords by half saving hundreds of millions. We should also abolish the post of Welsh & Scottish secretary and their white elephant offices in London . We have our Welsh & Scottish parliaments in Cardiff & Edinburgh that should deal with… Read more »
You speak wise words.
UK controlled Labour and Conservative are just using Cymru.
None offer any hope for the people of Cymru.
We must proceed with INDEPENDENCE now.
We are better off out of the UK.
Do they really expect us to believe that that £1.4 billion allegedly to be saved by restricting Winter Fuel Payments was going to break the economy if they bent their precious fiscal rules for it?
Once you consider the secondary effects on the economy of the reduced spending power of pensioners affected by it, then that £1.4 billion saved starts to look less, as well as the extra NHS costs that may come from conditions worsened by not being able to afford to heat their homes.
Ridiculous from Labour to dress it up as run on pound or govt finace collapse, considering their effort to get non claimants who are entitled to claim will mean a £3.4b increase for Pension credit and WFA so selling it
as a saving is a massive finger to the nation
The Tories should hang their heads in shame, we’ve just lived through 14 years of marketisation dogma, which has not worked!
I do believe there was a Black hole left behind by the Tories and i believe Labour knew about they are liars or just plain bloody stupid if they did not but Labour are no different to Tories not only are they both unionist and believe in the DISUNITED KINGDOM land of hope and glory and that bloody nonsense should be land of NO HOPE the tories picked on the weakest in only 2 children for child benefit leaving families going hungry and Labour taking away heating allowence for pensioners some will sadly die from cold or eating as they… Read more »
A rare occasion when we agree on something Mr P.
Again Labour is for the work shy, all those who have paid a mortgage, have enough savings to bury themselves, been employed or been a house wife will have winter fuel payment removed. If you sat on your bum done nothing you will get winter fuel payments. My parents weren’t rich but they could go to shops rather than food banks, they had a holiday, they could just afford a new white good if needed, they were upstanding citizens and have both worked very hard. I know the winter fuel payment helped them and they also felt as though the… Read more »
I have worked all my life from leaving school at fifteen finally retired at seventy the wife worked we live in a council house admitted the repairs are done when they get around to it, we are on state pensions but because we have a small amount of savings we cant get help with rent, council tax or pension credits. The wife doesnt enjoy the best of health so I am her carer In cant claim for her as my state pension is more than the carers allowance. It makes you wonder the old adage save for your future why… Read more »
Yes, like many pensioner’s, by today’s standards we are not all rich pensioner’s. You can be property rich and income poor. When you’re lashing out a huge proportion of your income and savings just paying your bills and maintaining your property, especially when you can’t downsize or go elswhere because you don’t have the money to afford to move out because decent suitable property for pensioner’s has rocketed in price. It’s a problem created by the 14 years of Tory government, now it’s a problem for a so called Labour government who are basically not a Labour government in substance… Read more »
I had to abandon PMQs today. I could no longer stand listening to Sunak, the leader of the ‘take everything off everyone’ party hypocritically ragging Starmer for his actions. The Tories may have the right as the main opposition party within the structures of Parliament to ask questions but they have no moral business whatsoever to be asking questions like these.