Cabinet not split over winter fuel payment cut, Downing Street insists

Downing Street has insisted that Sir Keir Starmer's Cabinet is "united" behind plans to cut winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners amid a backlash over the policy.

There have been calls from some union leaders for the government to U-turn on its decision, which will see all but the country’s poorest pensioners stripped of the winter fuel payment.

There have even been calls within Labour ranks for the government to soften the policy, ahead of Tuesday's Commons vote.

However, a Number 10 spokeswoman said ministers "agreed" on the importance of "fixing the foundations of the economy" by making tough and unpopular spending decisions.

“The Prime Minister opened Cabinet by stating the importance of fixing the foundations of our economy in order to carry out the Government’s mandate for change,” the spokeswoman said.

“He said that, given the scale of inheritance, this would be difficult and that tough decisions are unpopular decisions, but it is the tough decisions that will enable change for this country.”

Dame Diana Johnson, the policing minister, suggested Monday that ministers were looking at how the decision to scrap the payments for 10 million pensioners could be softened.

However, Treasury sources said she “misspoke” in suggesting the government is looking at doing more than encouraging further take-up of pension credit.

There was no discussion of softening the impact of the winter fuel cut at Cabinet on Monday, Downing Street said.

Asked whether Dame Diana Johnson had been “freelancing” when she said mitigations were being looked at by ministers, a No 10 spokeswoman said: “I think it was promptly corrected.”

Under the plans announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in July, winter fuel payments will be restricted to those receiving pension credit, meaning millions of pensioners will lose out on payments of between £200 and £300 this winter.

Seventeen Labour MPs have now signed a motion put forward by Neil Duncan-Jordan, one of the parliamentary party’s newly elected members, calling on the government to delay implementing the cut.

The motion has also been signed by six of the seven Labour MPs who lost the whip in July after voting against the King’s Speech over the government’s refusal to abolish the two-child benefit cap.

However, ministers continue to insist the cut is necessary to help fill a £22 billion “black hole” in this year’s budget, left by their Conservative predecessors.

Home Office minister Dame Diana told ITV she would “reluctantly” vote for the policy on Monday, emphasising that it was “a difficult decision”.

"This is a really difficult issue and the Home Office found a black hole of £6.4 billion that the last government left us," she said.

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"Across government, the Chancellor (Rachel Reeves) is having to look at where she knows there is a black hole and she's put forward this proposal, it's a difficult decision.

"Alongside the need to make sure that everyone who is entitled to pension credit, and that's often the most vulnerable and poorest pensioners who are getting that, it will allow you then to pass through to winter fuel allowance.

"As the Prime Minister says, we're not going to shy away from this to get the economy back on its feet."

Union leaders have criticised Starmer's plans, with Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch saying the government is making a “historic mistake”.

“They will have to do something about this historic mistake, otherwise we will start to see the consequences this winter,” he told a fringe meeting at the TUC Congress in Brighton.

Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham accused Labour of deciding to “pick the pocket of pensioners” while leaving the richest “totally untouched”.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We need to make sure that he is making the right choices and leadership is about choices. He needs to be big enough and brave enough to do a U-turn on this choice. It’s completely wrong."

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