PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer was told to come clean on the cruel consequences of callous cuts today after MPs voted through the axing of winter fuel help for 10 million pensioners.

Downing Street was accused of concealing the impact of the decision by refusing to release official estimates of the extra deaths anticipated this winter.

The last time the government considered means testing the winter fuel allowance, in 2017, Labour had published figures indicating that nearly 4,000 older people would die as a direct result.

The cover-up came as Starmer was pressed at PMQs in the Commons over the vote, which saw the government cuts approved but with large numbers of Labour MPs abstaining.

Tory leader Rishi Sunak urged him to publish the impact assessment which ministers will almost certainly have had prepared for them prior to the decision.

He asked: “The Labour Party’s own previous analysis claimed that this policy could cause 3,850 deaths … so, are the numbers in his impact assessment higher or lower than that?”

The Prime Minister ducked the question, instead invoking once more the “£22 billion black hole” he claims the Tories left in the country’s finances.

He also claimed that the cuts would enable the government to maintain the “triple lock” which guarantees a rising real value of the state pension.

But many Labour MPs remain deeply unhappy at the attack on pensioners, which was not foreshadowed in the general election campaign.

The only sitting Labour MP who voted against the measure, Jon Trickett, had still not heard today if he was to be suspended from the parliamentary whip. 

He has received thousands of messages of support from the public, which may be giving Starmer pause.

Labour MPs’ mood was not improved by news that Chancellor Rachel Reeves had claimed £4,400 in taxpayer cash to pay energy bills on her second home.