Prime minister Keir Starmer stands accused of “picking the pockets of pensioners” over the government’s decision to cut winter fuel payments.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite the Union, labelled the move to scrap the payments “completely wrong”, insisting it must be reversed.
It comes as MPs will vote on Tuesday on the decision to make the payments means-tested instead of universal.
The nature of Labour’s huge commons majority means the policy will almost certainly go ahead, but reports suggest a significant rebellion of around 50 MPs could be on the cards.
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Commenting on the controversial plan on Monday morning, Graham said: “We need to make sure that [the PM] is making the right choices and leadership is about choices and he needs to be big enough and brave enough to do a U-turn on this choice.”
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She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “It is completely wrong. People do not understand how a Labour Government has decided to pick the pocket of pensioners and at the same time leave the richest in our society totally untouched.
“That is wrong and he needs to change course.”
Graham suggested that the government appears to be going down the path of austerity, warning: “If it quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck, it is a duck.”
She said Labour’s repeated warnings of “tough choices” ahead “says to me cuts”.
She added: “The point here is when you are hearing words ‘tough choices’ that says to me cuts and this country cannot go through another round of austerity, it is not possible for people to go through another round of austerity.
“If it quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck, it is a duck. I feel that we are going down the wrong road. If they are going to put in cuts then I think people will be very, very, very concerned about that.”
Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, also criticised the government’s plans on Monday morning.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Nowak cited “real concerns” about the government’s decision to cut winter fuel payments “because I don’t want any pensioner going into this winter worried about putting the heating on.”
Meanwhile, Fran Heathcote, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) union, suggested there could be industrial action in response to the government’s cuts.
She told the BBC: “I can see a situation where, if they continue along the line that they’re, they’re heading with, with not just winter fuel payments but with social security and benefits more generally, there will be a real backlash and that could take the form of industrial action… because lots of unions represent low paid workers.”
Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader in Westminster, has said pensioners will face a “bitter winter” saying the winter fuel cuts plan “breaks the personal pledge” Starmer made to voters during the election.
Flynn has urged Labour’s 37 Scottish MPs to vote against the cut on Tuesday reminding the party of a promise its leader made: “Read my lips: no austerity under Labour”.
In a letter to Scottish Labour leader leader Anas Sarwar, Flynn said the cuts are “a political choice, driven by your obsession with copying Tory fiscal rules.”
He added: “I urge you to do the right thing, protect Scottish pensioners and defend Scotland’s budget by voting against Keir Starmer’s winter fuel payment cuts tomorrow.”
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