SUPINE Labour MPs have voted to plunge pensioners into poverty, after approving winter fuel benefit cuts for millions of older people.
The Commons backed Sir Keir Starmer’s austerity move by 348 votes to 228, with many Labour MPs abstaining.
A larger-than-expected 53 Labour MPs seem to have not backed the government in the vote, although some may have had permission from the whips to skip the debate.
It seems that only one, Jon Trickett, voted against the government, alongside several MPs already deprived of the Labour whip.
He may now be suspended from Labour’s parliamentary party too.
Mr Trickett said in a statement: “I have voted against the government’s proposal to remove the winter fuel payment.
“This winter will be extremely difficult for my constituents of all ages.
“After years of obscene profiteering by energy companies, they are hiking bills yet again.
“I fear that removing the payment from pensioners will mean that many more will fall into poverty this winter.
“We know that the consequences of pensioner poverty are devastating. It can even be a matter of life and death.
“The government should be looking to raise revenue from the wealthiest in society, not working-class pensioners.
“I could not in good conscience vote to make my constituents poorer.
“I will sleep well tonight knowing that I voted to defend my constituents.”
Ministers pressed ahead with the cut, which they blame on a “black hole” in public finances inherited from the Tories, in the face of similar criticism from across the left.
John McDonnell, speaking in the brief debate which preceded the vote, said that the cut “flies against everything I believe in as a Labour MP about tackling inequality and poverty within our society.”
He slammed the government’s claim that those with the “broadest shoulders” should bear the burden of the crisis, saying that it was the poorest who have been hit hardest.
Apsana Begum, like Mr McDonnell currently suspended from the Labour whip for opposing the two-child benefit cap, said she voted against the cut in the allowance, adding: “I stand with my constituents in opposing austerity.”
And the likewise whipless Zarah Sultana stated: “We deserve better than Tory austerity versus Labour austerity.”
Jeremy Corbyn, now of the Independents Alliance, posted on X that it was a “lie” for the government to claim “they have no choice but to cut winter fuel allowance.
“They could bring in wealth taxes as a start. Instead, they choose to push more pensioners into poverty.”
Among the Labour MPs refusing to back the cut were former Unite officer Rachel Maskell and ex-Unison official Neil Duncan-Jordan.
Mr Duncan-Jordan, the first-ever Labour MP to represent Poole, called for the government to delay the cut while forming a taskforce to tackle pensioner poverty.
And Ms Maskell also told the front bench to “delay and get this right,” adding that her conscience would not let her support the measure.
The rebels were backed by nearly all opposition parties and MPs.
Kirsty Blackman for the Scottish National Party told the Commons that the move was driven by Labour’s desperation “to meet their self-imposed fiscal targets” and that Sir Keir was “balancing the books on the backs of pensioners.”
For the Tories, leadership candidate Mel Stride claimed that since the cut was not in Labour’s manifesto “integrity and transparency have gone out of the window.”
But the flint-faced Cabinet made no concessions, saying that there were no plans to expand the eligibility criteria under which the poorest pensioners could still be paid the fuel allowance.
Welfare Secretary Liz Kendall blamed the former government for the problem, saying that the Tories had been “spending like no tomorrow” and it “not being a decision we wanted or expected to take.”
