PM faces calls to aid poorest as winter fuel cut approved

Dozens of Labour MPs refuse to back plan targeting pensioners

- Peter Walker, Pippa Crerar

Keir Starmer is facing growing pressure to unveil measures to help the poorest pensioners in next month's budget after dozens of Labour MPs refused to back a controversial plan to cut the winter fuel allowance.

Despite an easy Commons win for the government - defeating a Conservative motion to scrap the removal of the winter fuel payment from most older people by 120 votes - the rebels plan to fight on and have arranged to meet ministers to push for mitigating measures.

There was also a war of words about how big a rebellion Starmer faced, with No 10 sources insisting that only 12 of the 53 Labour MPs who abstained did so without permission.

In response, some rebels said whips had encouraged those known to dislike the plan to come up with a legitimate reason to miss the vote.

Just one Labour backbencher, the veteran leftwinger Jon Trickett, supported the Conservative-forced motion to scrap the policy, saying afterwards he could “sleep well tonight knowing that I voted to defend my constituents”.

Trickett is now likely to lose the party whip, the same fate of seven Labour MPs who had it suspended for six months in July after rebelling on the two-child benefit cap. Five of the seven rebelled again, with the other two abstaining.

While Starmer’s team hope that the victory by 348 votes to 228 will take some intensity out of the issue, opponents of the policy are planning to push ministers to look urgently at extra help for the most vulnerable, amid what one called the “ticking clock” of approaching colder weather.