Labour could reverse DWP Winter Fuel Payment cut in humiliating u-turn

Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, and other Unite delegates applauded after their motion was carried at the Labour Party conference today.

Labour delegates have voted for a motion saying the £300 Winter Fuel Payments cut should be reversed. Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, and other Unite delegates applauded after their motion was carried at the Labour Party conference today.

Liz Kendall said: "Conference, focusing winter fuel payments on the poorest pensioners wasn’t a decision we wanted or expected to make. But when we promised we could be trusted with taxpayers’ money, we meant it.

"And when we’re faced with a £22 billion black hole which the Tories left this year – we had to act. Because we know what happened when Liz Truss played fast and loose with the public finances. It was working people and pensioners on fixed incomes who paid the highest price.

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"That is why we took what I know is a very difficult decision." Alan Tate from the CWU seconded the Unite motion on the winter fuel payments cut. He said: "The CWU has been inundated with emails and calls from our retired members worried abo ut choosing between heating and eating. Experts are warning that this could increase the risk of illness or even death for vulnerable people this winter.

"Now we’ve heard from both the prime minister and the chancellor describing this cut as a tough choice the conference. The tough choice is not about switching off pensioners’s heating this winter. The real choice is about picking up the phone for the tech giants like Amazon and the ultra wealthy and making them pay their share, their fair share of tax."

In a scathing attack on the policy, Labour backbencher Rachael Maskell said she fears pensioners will die as a result. She wrote in The Telegraph: “We know that being cold leads to stroke, heart attacks, pneumonia, hyperthermia and so much more as the body wrestles to keep warm, and viruses prey on the frail."

And Ms Maskell continued: “The fear is that, if we withdraw winter fuel payments for those in fuel poverty, it will lead to excess deaths.” Another disgruntled backbencher said the move, coupled with the refusal to scrap the two-child benefit limit, has caused anger. They said: "There's people right across the political divide who are very unhappy. They need to consider a u-turn over the winter fuel payments. I think this is going to ramp up, there's a lot of angry people out there."