PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer faces further backlash if his government waters down its Warm Homes Plan to insulate houses and cut energy bills, according to new polling. 

The findings come amid reports that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering reducing funding for the flagship programme.

Polling by Opinium today shows that nearly half of Labour voters believe that any backtracking on the party’s manifesto commitment to upgrade Britain’s draughty housing stock would reduce trust in Sir Keir’s government.

Among voters who backed Labour in the last general election but are not currently planning to do so again, 56 per cent said a U-turn on home insulation would further erode their trust, potentially damaging the party’s efforts to win back support from Reform, the Liberal Democrats, Greens and others.

Forty-eight per cent of Labour voters said the warm homes election promise was a factor in their decision to vote for the party. 

Labour promised to invest £13.2 billion in a Warm Homes Plan to improve the country’s leaky housing, which is contributing to ill health and increasing pressure on the NHS.

A recent Medact survey found that three-quarters of front-line clinicians regularly see patients made sick by poor housing conditions and almost half have discharged patients into homes they knew would make them ill again.   

Before the general election, 59 per cent of prospective Labour voters said they supported a funded nationwide insulation programme to slash deaths caused by cold, damp houses. 

End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said the polling “clearly shows that it is now a case of heat or defeat for the government.”

“The Labour manifesto said the promised funding will offer grants and low-interest loans to support investment in insulation and other improvements such as solar panels, batteries and low-carbon heating to cut bills,” he said. 

“Either they back a Warm Homes Plan to the full extent promised in the manifesto, or they will be punished at the ballot box. 

“The Chancellor must not be able to engineer another Winter Fuel Payment disaster by refusing to help tackle fuel poverty and MPs should make that clear.”

Ed Matthew, of the climate change think tank E3G, said: “The public is sick of wasting money trying to heat cold, leaky houses and wants this government to honour its manifesto pledge. 

“If they fail to do so, it would demonstrate that Labour have not learned from the winter fuel debacle at all.”