The prime minister’s official spokesman said Starmer wanted the changes to be introduced “as quickly as possible”, as ITV News Political Correspondent Carl Dinnen explains
Sir Keir Starmer has hinted the government will U-turn on pensioners’ winter fuel payment changes.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday, he told the House of Commons his government wants “to ensure more pensioners are eligible” for the payments.
The PM’s response is a marked change in tone from Downing Street’s previous stance, with Starmer only two weeks ago doubling down on the unpopular decision despite admitting it hurt his party in the May local elections.
He has faced growing pressure from within the Labour ranks to change course over winter fuel changes, as well as welfare reforms – both of which were blamed for contributing to the party’s defeat in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
Reports had suggested ministers could remove the two-child benefit cap or reconsider their decision to means-test the winter fuel payment for pensioners in a bid to quell a Labour rebellion.
Labour MP Sarah Owen asked Starmer at PMQs: “Whilst the economy is showing signs of improving, many pensioners are still impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. People in Luton who have worked hard all their lives seeing their precious savings slip away, so can the prime minister tell us what measures he will take to help struggling pensions in towns like mine?”
He replied: “I recognise that people are still feeling the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis including pensioners. As the economy improves, we want to make sure people feel those improvements in their days as their lives go forward.
“That is why we want to ensure that as we go forward more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments.
“As you would expect we will only make decisions we can afford. That’s why we will look at that as part of a fiscal event.”
This means an announcement of any changes to the eligibility criteria should be expected at the Autumn Budget, scheduled for October.
Downing Street was unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or whether the reforms would be in place this winter.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said Starmer wanted the changes to be introduced “as quickly as possible”.
The decision last July to restrict the winter fuel payment to the poorest pensioners was intended to save around £1.5 billion a year, with more than nine million people who would have previously been eligible losing out.
Starmer went on to say that the government has needed to “stabilise the economy with tough decisions” after taking over from the Tories, and now that the economy has started to improve, he can look at the policy.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch urged him to confirm whether he is reversing the policy, as she called him “desperate”.
The PM repeated: “As the economy improves, we want to take measures that will impact on people’s lives, and therefore we will look at the threshold, but that will have to be part of a fiscal event.”
Badenoch replied: “I wonder how the public feel about a man can’t give a straight answer to a simple question, and you look at all of them behind him, all of them cheering: when this inevitable U-turn on winter fuel comes – and it will, from a desperate prime minister – what will he say to the 348 MPs who went over the top and voted for the winter fuel cut last September?
“Just like the British public, how can any of them ever trust him again?”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Starmer “teased” the U-turn and pressed him to “commit” to reversing the cuts in full, to which the PM repeated his earlier responses.
Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott earlier launched a stinging attack on her party leader over winter fuel in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Referencing Margaret Thatcher’s controversial “poll tax” which ultimately contributed to her downfall, Abbott said she believed winter fuel cuts are Starmer’s equivalent policy due to the way it has “cut through” to voters.
“One of the things that struck me, colleagues that went to campaign in Runcorn, that was the issue that was raised on every doorstep. Some things cut through,” she told the programme.
“You remember Mrs. Thatcher and the poll tax? It just cut through. And I think the winter fuel is like that because everybody knows an old person,” she told the programme.
Asked if she thought Starmer would still be prime minister at the time of the next election, she said “I hope so” but “there are other people”, singling out Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner.
A memo leaked to the Daily Telegraph suggests Rayner pushed for a radical combination of tax hikes to avoid the need for further cuts in spending.
She suggested reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance and changing dividend taxes in a memo to the Chancellor ahead of March’s spring statement, with ideas to raise revenue.
Sir Keir defended his deputy during PMQs after Mrs Badenoch said his Cabinet was “open warfare” with Ms Rayner “clearly calling the shots”.
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