Unlock Digest Editor for free
FT Editor Roula Khalaf picks her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Greater Manchester Mayor and former Labour cabinet minister Andy Burnham has called on the UK government to consider easing controversial plans to cut the winter fuel subsidy.
MPs will vote on Tuesday afternoon on the move, which would cut benefits for all those not receiving pension credit.
Burnham said there was a “reason” to reform the payment but urged ministers not to rule out taking a “narrow” approach to withdrawing it.
Pensioners are often “reluctant” to apply for pension benefits, he said, while the income threshold at which people qualify for them is “quite low anyway”.
“I would like them not to rule out providing additional support for pensioners who are on the brink,” he told the BBC.
Treasury Secretary Rachel Reeves has so far refused to ease the cuts, sparking a backlash from both the left and right.
Around 10 million pensioners will lose the winter fuel payment, currently a general benefit. In future, the payment, worth up to £300 for households with people aged 80 or over, will be means-tested. The payment drops to around £200 when the recipient is under 80.
Based on official wage growth data, the state pension is expected to rise by £460 from April 2025.
On Monday night, Reeves called on Labor MPs to unite in defending the “tough decisions” she said she had to make to put the public finances back on solid footing.
“We stand, we lead and we govern together,” she said, as she tried to contain a Labour rebellion. Critics of the policy expect at least a dozen Labour MPs to defy the whip and abstain.
Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, has made it clear through his party’s lawmakers that any Labour MP who votes against the measure in a vote could be suspended.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, defended the move. “We had no choice… We are fixing the foundations. [of the economy]And that’s a tough message today,” he said. Sky News.
“But not just to solve the problem, but to make sure your home is better in the future and the better future that we want, more prosperity for everyone, comes from stability and responsibility.”
Although Labor is expected to win easily, there is widespread unease within the party that one of Reeves’ first “tough decisions” will affect pensioners, some of whom live near the poverty line.
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT union, has warned the Labor government not to act like a “dictatorship” as the left-winger called on the government to change course on cutting the winter fuel subsidy.
Lynch said that before the allowance was introduced, the number of pensioners dying from the cold weather had doubled. “If it is withdrawn, we will have to see what the outcome of that is, and he will have to take responsibility for that move,” he said, referring to Starmer.
He said the Labour Party was being “harsh” in the way it urged its MPs to back the measure in a vote on the proposal on Tuesday afternoon. “If you can’t allow debate within the party and you can’t allow ideas to be expressed then you’re running a dictatorship,” he said.
