Sir Keir Starmer was dealt a crushing blow when delegates at Labour’s conference voted to reverse the winter fuel payment.
Unite Union has led calls in Liverpool for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to u-turn on her decision to axe the £300 lifeline for older people.
The room erupted into cheers as members hugged each other when the result was read out shortly after 11.40am today.
The vote is non-binding, meaning the Government is not obliged to change the policy. But the rebuke over one of the first financial decisions taken by Labour in office is an embarrassment for No 10.
But a Conservative source told the Express: “Starmer has lost support of the Labour Party, his MPs and paymasters.”
The Labour leadership was accused of trying to “silence” pensioners after shifting the humiliating vote from Monday to today when most people would have left the conference.
Moving the motion, Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “Friends, people simply do not understand, I do not understand, how our new Labour government can cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and leave the super-rich untouched.
“This is not what people voted for. It is the wrong decision and needs to be reversed.”
Unite’s motion to the Labour conference called for the winter fuel allowance cut to be reversed (Image: Getty)
There was some confusion over whether the motion had carried because the vote looked extremely close but the chair of the panel confirmed it had passed.
Unite’s motion calling for the cut to be reversed was due to be debated earlier this week but was changed to today, the final day of the conference, when most delegates and Labour leadership have left.
The union’s general secretary Sharon Graham said moving the debate was “disrespectful”, adding she was confident of getting support from delegates for the motion, which is being backed by the Communication Workers Union.
CWU officials will not be at the conference on Wednesday because they are attending the funeral in Scotland of the union’s former assistant general secretary Andy Kerr, who used to be on Labour’s national executive.
The winter fuel payments of up to £300 were previously available to everyone above state pension age.
But older people will only receive the payment if they are receiving pension credit.
The Treasury said the winter fuel changes meant the number of pensioners receiving the payments would plummet from 11.4million to 1.5million.
Sharon Graham gen sec of Unite speaking on the heated Win (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
Labour’s own analysis from 2017, when Sir Keir Starmer was in the shadow cabinet, warned that scrapping the fuel allowance for 10million pensioners would increase excess deaths by 3,850 that winter.
The Express has highlighted the plight of dozens of readers who will be forced to turn their heating down or go without food in the depths of winter because of Labour’s decision.
The paper has received almost a dozen large postage sacks filled with letters from angry older people who fear for their lives.
Up to 880,000 pensioners who are eligible for pension credit do not currently claim it and therefore will not receive it.
The Government has worked with charities, local authorities and broadcasters to ensure as many of those eligible as possible receive the benefit and the winter fuel payment this winter.
