Winter fuel payment cuts vote: Live updates as MPs vote down rebels – LabourList

MPs are voting today on the future of the winter fuel allowance, as Labour battles to contain a rebellion on the backbenches.

Speculation has mounted this week that dozens of MPs could abstain or rebel, but Chancellor Rachel Reeves urged colleagues to toe the line last night, telling a Parliamentary Labour Party meeting: “We stand, we lead and we govern together.”

READ MORE: Which Labour MPs could abstain or vote against cuts?

Reeves said: “I understand the decision that this government have made on winter fuel is a difficult decision. I’m not immune to the arguments that many in this room have made.

“Why are we having to make these savings? It’s not because we plan to, not because we wanted to, because there’s a 22 billion pounds black hole in the public finances because of the mess created by the previous government.

We will have live updates here below throughout the day, and you can watch the debate live stream via Parliamentlive.tv here.

READ MORE: LabourList poll suggests party supporters divided over winter fuel cuts

3.55pm: PM’s first major rebellion

A total of 53 Labour MPs did not vote in favour of today’s motion on the winter fuel allowance.

That number includes big names such as Hilary Benn and Diane Abbott.

3.22pm: Starmer emerges victorious

The opposition motion to shoot down the winter fuel cut has failed by 348 votes to 228.

2.59pm: McDonnell warns cut ‘flies in face of everything I believe in’

Labour MP John McDonnell, former Shadow Chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, said the vote had been “heavily whipped”.

He said he agreed the government had a “toxic inheritance” from the Conservatives, had to ensure financial stability, and had to put the burden on those with the “heaviest shoulders”.

But he said actually the burden is “being placed on some of the poorest”, warning at least a quarter of pensioners will not apply for pension credit to be eligible. He called for equalising capital gains tax and a financial transactions tax instead.

He claimed the “misjudgement…flies against everything I believe in as a Labour MP…I was not elected to impoverish my constituents and put them in this hardship.

“I regret voting for a motion put forward by these characters [the Tories], but I will have to because there is no other mechanisim.”

2.48pm: New MPs weigh in

Neil Duncan-Jordan, the new MP for Poole who filed an early day motion urging a delay to the winter fuel cuts, said in the Commons he had been an “active campaigner in the pensioner movement” who felt “compelled” to take part in the debate.

He said the fault lay with the last government, but he wanted to “make the case for universalism as the conerstone of our welfare state”.

He highlighted the fact not enough people claimed pension credit who were eligible, with the highest takeup ever only 67%. Pensioners are “wary” about having to answer many questions in application forms. “There is still a stigma attached to having to declare that you are struggling.
“Concepts around the “deserving poor are as old as this building. I thought in the 21st century we would be hoping for something better.”

2.45pm: An NEC divided

Labour NEC member Mish Rahman posted: “So far Starmer’s leadership has made two big decisions – one where he chose to keep kids in poverty & now to let old people freeze.

“Labour is choosing to target poor kids & old people rather than target super rich billionaires by introducing a wealth tax.”

1.29pm: Filling the fiscal black hole

Former LabourList editor Mark Ferguson, now the MP for Gateshead Central and Whickham defended the Chancellor’s move to cut the winter fuel allowance.

He posted on Facebook that Labour needs to address the “£22 billion black hole this year, which, if we don’t address, will push the deficit up by 25%. We all saw what happened when Liz Truss promised to spend billions she couldn’t afford. We can’t take that risk again.”

1.13pm: Left wing consolidation

Veteran left wing Labour MP Ian Lavery has announced he will not be voting for the cut in winter fuel allowance.

11.44am: Labour MPs rally support

Telford MP Shaun Davies has spoken out in favour of the government line.

He posted on X: “The state pension – increased by £900 this year and will increase by another £460 next year. The vote today is on a Conservative motion, which would allow those living abroad and rich pensioners like Alan Sugar to get the winter fuel payment.”

10.15am: Union leader says pensioners having ‘pockets picked’

Starmer will address the TUC Congress today in Brighton, hours before the vote.

Pressure is building over the winter fuel row. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said on Monday: “How can the Labour government, a Labour government, remove the winter fuel payment from pensioners, whilst the top 50 richest families are worth £500bn?

“How can Labour leave those people untaxed while pensioners have their pockets picked? We need a wealth tax now.”

More on her and other union leaders’ calls for changes to government policy here from our colleagues Dan and Morgan in Brighton.

9.55am: What Rachel Reeves told MPs – and Labour’s carrot and stick

Journalist Lee Harpin says he’s heard some MPs considering abstaining were “won around” in the PLP meeting last night, with Reeves making a strong case for government policy.

“It is the right thing to do, to target money at a time when finances are so stretched, at people who need them most,” she said.

She also highlighted the fact Labour is “working hard to ensure that all those pensioners who are entitled to pension credit get it.

“We’re making inroads in reaching the 800,000 people who the Tories allowed to go without pension credit, even knowing that they were entitled to it, and we’re bringing forward the merger of housing benefit and pension credit to ensure that more pensioners get the support that they are entitled to.”

Meanwhile she has also written for The Telegraph suggesting pensions will rise by more than value of the cut:

But the stick also hangs over MPs, who will remember the heavy pressure over the two-child benefit cap vote. Harpin also writes on X:

That might be why there seems to have been less opposition vocally than you might expect…

9.30am: What time is the vote, and how many MPs could vote against?

Good morning. Today sees MPs vote on the government’s controversial means-testing of the winter fuel allowance…

While there is no expectation the government will lose today’s vote (expected at around 2pm), all eyes will be on how many Labour MPs abstain, or even vote against.

There has been speculation up to 50 MPs could rebel by abstaining or rebelling, though whips will have been frantically seeking to whittle down that number in the past few days.

A total of 17 Labour MPs have backed an early day motion calling for the government to postpone its decision, along with several of the seven MPs suspended from the party after backing an amendment to the King’s Speech.

How many of those will vote against? While suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana has said she will vote against the government today, vocal critic of the winter fuel allowance cut Rachael Maskell has signalled she will abstain.

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