The Labour government, as expected, won its vote on cutting the Winter Fuel Payment, but despite much behind-the-scenes pressure from Party whips, dozens of Labour MPs abstained on the measure, including sixteen of the new 2024 intake. Additionally, half a dozen Labour MPs bravely voted against, including some who have already had the whip suspended.

A total of 53 Labour MPs did not vote in favour of the motion. John McDonnell MP, who voted against, said that the heavily whipped vote “flies against everything I believe in as a Labour MP… I was not elected to impoverish my constituents and put them in this hardship.”

The vote came as over half a million people signed a petition organised by Age UK against the new Labour government’s decision to mean-test the benefit.

Many MPs have spoken out against the proposal. They have been joined this week by trade union leaders at the TUC Conference.

When Theresa May made a manifesto pledge to make the same cut in 2017, Labour said then that it would cause 3,850 excess deaths. The current Labour government did not promise this cut in their manifesto and refuses to publish an impact assessment of its proposal, thus shielding itself from public accountability.

Lord Prem Sikka estimates that 1.6m pensioners living below the poverty line will lose their Winter Fuel Payments. Former Jeremy Corbyn advisor Andrew Fisher has explained that the economic arguments for the cut simply do not stack up. Even the Guardianargues that the cuts is “mean, unjust and politically inept.”

Labour NEC member Mish Rahman posted: “So far Starmer’s leadership has made two big decisions – one where he chose to keep kids in poverty and now to let old people freeze. Labour is choosing to target poor kids and old people rather than target super rich billionaires by introducing a wealth tax.”

Jon Trickett MP voted against the measure. He said: “Our country is richer than it’s ever been, but the wealth is not shared fairly. In my view the government should be looking to raise revenues from the wealthiest in society, not working class pensioners.”

A poll this week on Labour list found that only 26% of respondents support means-testing the Winter Fuel Payment.

Former Labour Chief of Staff Simon Fletcher agrees: “It is estimated that the number of people receiving the payment will fall from more than 11 million, to about 1.5 million, including many who are clearly in no sense well-off. The Chancellor’s decision will affect 86 per cent of pensioners – not just wealthiest but those on the basic state pension rate of £11,500 a year.”

More insidiously, in defending the cut, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and her co-thinkers have inevitably launched an offensive against the whole principle of universalism, on the grounds that ‘millionaires might benefit’. This is the  thin end of a particularly nasty wedge, threatening the universal character of any benefit, including healthcare or concessionary travel.

As Fletcher says, “Universalism has been fought for by generations of labour movement activists and social reformers.” Abandoning the principle pitches one section of beneficiaries against another and risks re-attaching a stigma to claiming benefits. It turns its back on the whole history of democratic socialism.

Momentum said in a statement: “The decision to means-test Winter Fuel Payments will send as many as 2 million pensioners into fuel poverty this winter, with the most vulnerable at risk of serious hardship, or even death. It is a political choice, not an economic necessity. It is also an attack on the principle of universalism that the Labour Party has historically stood for.

“The Leadership made no mention of their intentions during the Election Campaign or in the Party Manifesto, yet still MPs are subject to draconian measures to vote for it. Because of the Leadership’s control freakery and authoritarianism, the number of MPs who voted against the Bill is limited to 6 MPs who have shown great bravery and principle in doing so. In addition, many more MPs have expressed their opposition by abstaining on a Bill which they could not in good conscience vote in favour of.

“If the Leadership unleashes a new round of austerity measures in the October budget the entire labour movement and civil society must unite to oppose it.”

Momentum have produced a model Party Conference motion for CLPs to consider, available here, along with other model motions.

Image:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rachel_Reeves,_Keir_Starmer_and_Angela_Rayner.jpg Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner. Source: UK Parliament. Author: © UK Parliament / Maria Unger,  licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.