POLITICAL pressure was mounting on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves to back down on their new austerity drive today.

Dozens of Labour MPs joined politicians across the parties in demanding that the government back down on cuts to winter fuel and disability benefits.

But the PM offered no sign of an impending u-turn as he faced Commons questions, despite disastrous election results last week with huge losses to hard-right Reform.

The Labour Red Wall Group, formed by MPs from former industrial communities in the Midlands and northern England, has written to Sir Keir urging that his government break with ruinous Treasury orthodoxy.

The 45 MPs, whose ranks would be radically diminished at the next election on present evidence, also warned the premier that his response to last week’s results “has fallen on deaf ears.”

They urged that the party urgently “rebuild the social contract” by restoring the winter fuel payments taken from millions of pensioners by Ms Reeves last year.

The letter demands a “breakaway from Treasury orthodoxy, otherwise we will never get the investment we desperately need.”

The MPs warn of an “existential crisis” for Labour if it loses the “red wall” seats once more, as it did in 2019 over the Brexit issue.

Not only would this guarantee an early exit from government but “without Red Wall communities, we are not a Labour Party.”

Bassetlaw MP and leader of the group Jo White said that responding to voters’ fury ”isn’t weak, it takes us to a position of strength.”

However, there is no indication that is a move Sir Keir is prepared to make. He dodged challenges in the Commons, urging him to heed the “red wall” MPs’ advice, and appears to be doubling down on the Treasury plan.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Liberal Democrat chief Ed Davey both urged restoration of the winter fuel payments, with Ms Badenoch asking: “Will he listen to Labour colleagues saying he must change his mind on this?”

For the Greens, Brighton MP Sian Berry told him that the government should be supporting disabled people, not cutting their benefits.

Ms Badenoch, whose own election results were even worse than Labour’s, had her fragile leadership further undermined by former chancellor Jeremy Hunt conceding that the Tories might be finished.

“We can’t rule it out,” he told Times Radio, citing electoral volatility across the Western world, pointing out that “at the moment, voters seem to be split between five parties and that’s a very, very big change.”