The Labour government has confirmed that there will be a binding vote on whether to axe the winter fuel allowance for all but the poorest pensioners, as the former shadow chancellor Ed Balls said he had grave doubts about the decision. The confirmation of the vote comes amid growing unease within the party about backing the plans. It will take place next Tuesday after the Conservatives submitted a motion to annul the government’s change to regulations – a change that ordinarily would not be subject to a vote. Labour had said previously there would be no vote on the measure.
Balls said on Thursday he thought the government needed “an escape route” from the policy and described it as “a mess”. “They need to find a creative way to do what they said they were going to do, close the in-year black hole, and find an alternative way to do it which could either be modifying what they’re doing on the winter allowance or finding some other way to close the black hole,” he said on the Political Currency podcast. In a sign of unrest in the parliamentary party, a number of Labour MPs have signed an early day motion asking for the change to be reconsidered and given more time to be communicated. The motion was submitted by the new Labour MP for Poole, Neil Duncan-Jordan, who previously worked for the biggest pensioner pressure group, the National Pensioners Convention. The Guardian understands that MPs have attended briefings given by Duncan-Jordan on the implications of the change. Two other new MPs have signed Duncan-Jordan’s motion, which is not binding on the government and is essentially symbolic. They are the Stroud MP, Dr Simon Opher, a former GP, and Chris Hinchliff, the MP for North East Hertfordshire. Others who have signed the motion include leftwing Labour MPs such as Clive Lewis and Kim Johnson. Downing Street admitted the vote would be binding on Tuesday but declined to comment further on whipping arrangements. The Conservatives said the government had been “dragged to the House of Commons by the Conservatives to hold a vote on their cruel decision to scrap the winter fuel payment for 10 million pensioners”. Mel Stride, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “We welcome that the Labour government have U-turned and there will now be a vote on the Conservative motion to scrap the cruel cut to winter fuel payments. Labour thinks it is right to give their union paymasters an inflation-busting pay rise over protecting vulnerable pensioners, just as bills are going up. This tells you everything you need to know about the government’s values. “Labour still wants to stop this vital support for the most vulnerable pensioners, but we would urge all MPs to do the right thing and back this Conservative motion to stop this punishing cut.” After the Commons leader, Lucy Powell, confirmed on Thursday that a vote would be held, the Labour MP Rachael Maskell urged a rethink of the proposed cuts.
“Being cold at home can lead to stroke, heart attack, hypothermia, pneumonia and other such illnesses,” she said. “Will she [Powell] encourage the government to read the work of Prof Sir Michael Marmot and Sir Chris Whitty in this area, so that we can take a public health approach to people being warm at home, to mitigate the cost that could come without putting right mitigation around the winter fuel payments?” Powell replied: “The decision to means-test winter fuel payments was not a decision that any of us wanted to take, it’s a decision we’ve had to take in order to balance the books, as we have just discussed, because it’s those on the lowest income who pay the very heaviest price when the economy crashes and the real cost of living goes through the roof.” She added: “Getting growth in our economy, delivering lower energy bills and getting energy independence are absolutely core to this government’s agenda.” The shadow Commons leader, Chris Philp, said he had been contacted by constituents “desperate with worry” about the proposed changes. He said one pensioner had written to him saying: “The allowance meant I could turn the heating on. Now I fear hypothermia during the coming winter months.” Speaking on the same podcast as Balls, the former chancellor George Osborne said Reeves may have received poor advice from the Treasury. “It is a big challenge for Rachel Reeves, because she’s the new chancellor, and it was her call. She can say to the civil servants and her political advisers, ‘Why did you push me into this corner?’ But ultimately, of course, it was her decision.”