BLAME KEIR FOR WINTER OAP DEATHS

PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer should be held personally responsible if pensioners freeze to death this winter, Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick declared last night.

- David Williamson

He also said Chancellor Rachel Reeves should take a share of the blame for the "cruel and immoral" decision to axe winter fuel payments for 10 million over-65s. In a blistering attack, he said the pair must be made to face the consequences because they knew the move would result in vulnerable older people dying prematurely.

Mr Jenrick pointed to Labour's own research from 2017 which warned that axing support would result in 3,850 extra deaths, he said.

He told the Sunday Express: "It is going to be a very harsh winter for pensioners now. This is Labour's new winter of discontent. No one can say that Starmer and Reeves didn't know what they were doing.

"They chose to put the interests of the union paymasters above the interests of poor pensioners and they were warned this would lead to thousands of pensioners dying this winter." Mr Jenrick, who is going head-to-head with Kemi Badenoch in the Tory leadership race, spoke out as a YouGov poll revealed one in four pensioners who lose the allowance will keep their heating turned off throughout winter.

And he pledged to make it Conservative policy to reverse controversial cuts that will see all but the poorest pensioners stripped of fuel payments, if he wins the Tory crown on November 2.

Barely three out of 10 people - 28 per cent would vote Labour if a general election was held tomorrow, according to a Techne poll. And it shows one in five - 19 per cent-now support Reform UK.

Mr Jenrick is sure Labour's drop in popularity is linked to its decision to restrict the payments which provide up to £300 in help with heating while giving the thumbs-up to pay increases for workers resented by militant unions.

He said: "This decision to cut winter fuel payments feels like Labour's poll tax moment. They have plummeted in the polls.