UNITED AGAINST LABOUR'S 'CRUEL' WINTER FUEL CUT

ANGRY protesters united outside Parliament to demand "cruel" Sir Keir Starmer restore winter fuel cash to pensioners.

- Katie Harris

Charities and unions joined forces as hundreds rallied.

Chants of "Keir Starmer, don't be cruel, give us back our winter fuel" rang out. Unite union boss Sharon Graham said: "He has to reverse the decision, it's really clear." She added: "We're the sixth richest economy in the world and we are picking the pockets of pensioners. It's totally and utterly wrong." The secretary-general was among speakers at the demo, which was organised by Unite and the National Pensioners Convention.

Warning that Sir Keir's fuel payment cut of up to £300 per pensioner could lead to deaths, Ms Graham stressed: "Leadership is also about knowing when you've made a misstep, when you've made an error, when you've made a mistake. This is a mistake, he needs to reverse it.

"The winter is coming - we haven't just had it, it's just about to come on to us and there will be people in dire straits as a result." The Daily Express is spearheading a crusade to have the handouts restored to all pensioners and Ms Graham said Unite would "absolutely" be continuing its campaign.

She said: "This is the beginning, you can see how many people are here at very short notice. Unite's got 100,000 pensioners in our union, we've got a million workers who will be the pensioners of the future and we're going to do everything we can to get this U-turn." Jan Shortt, NPC general secretary, hit out at the Government for opting to "steal from pensioners".

She said: "This was never in the Labour Party manifesto. It came as an absolute shock and there's been no adequate explanation why the urgency to do it this year...so we're angry. People are already turning off their heating, they're already telling us they are thinking about cutting their care budgets.