MORE pensioners freeze to death in Britain every winter than in Scandinavian countries because of Tory inaction, a Labour MP said last night.

Dan Jarvis staged a Commons debate on the “unacceptable” annual rise in the number of older and vulnerable people who perish during cold weather.

There were a shocking 43,900 “excess winter deaths” last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

That is more than double the number of similar deaths recorded in 2013-14 and the highest rate for five years.

Britain has a higher rate of excess winter deaths than European countries with considerably colder weather, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Iceland, according to a study for the European Journal of Public Health.

Mr Jarvis said: “It is unacceptable that, each year, tens of thousands of people die unnecessarily.

“The number of people dying could be reduced if the government took bolder action and had a co-ordinated plan to reduce excess winter deaths.”

A spokeswoman for the  government said it spends £2 billion a year on lowering poor pensioners’ fuel bills as part of its winter plan, but admitted: “There is still more to do.”

She also said the NHS was preparing “earlier than ever” for next winter.

But Mr Javis pointed out that the government has published its flu plan two months later than last year.

The Barnsley Central MP is demanding that the Prime Minister use the summer to prepare a national strategy to cut preventable deaths this winter and will launch a petition on the government’s website to keep the issue on its agenda.