Sir Keir Starmer has denied giving pensioners a “punishment beating” as fury mounts over the winter fuel fiasco.

The Prime Minister dodged questions over whether he will scrap the single person discount on council tax.

Keir Starmer talking to British press (Image: Getty)

Retirees make up about half of the 8.4 million people who will be affected if the council tax discount for single householders is abolished, analysis shows.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned scrapping the 25 per cent single-person council tax discount would save the public purse £3 billion a year.

It cuts around £543 per year from the average Band D council tax bill in 2024-25.

Asked if he was targeting older people because many of them do not vote for Labour, the Prime Minister said: “No absolutely not.

“And let’s just try to quash this now.

“The Budget is on October 30th.

“So, between now and then you are all going to ask me questions, as you did before the election, will you rule out X, Y, Z?

“And knowing that I’m not going to say before the Budget what we’re going to do, you will then write a story saying ‘refused to rule out X, Y, Z’.

“I’m not going to say before the Budget what we’re going to do.

“That does not mean that I’m ruling in anything that you might be putting to me, it simply means like every Prime Minister we’re not going to reveal what’s in the Budget before we get to it. We did this in the election all the way through.”

Sir Keir Starmer confirmed he does not have a report into the potential effect on illness and death rates among older people on his desk.

Speaking to reporters while travelling to Washington last night, he said: “There isn’t a report on my desk. You don’t have to do one for exercises like this, but I can feel you think I have a report on my desk, I don’t.”

When pressed on whether he was comfortable not having one, he did not answer.

Tory MPs on Thursday night slammed the decision, accusing the PM of a “callous” and “cruel” campaign against the elderly.

Rebecca Smith MP said: “My constituents are preoccupied with worrying about how the cruel cut to winter fuel payments will impact them.

“It is alarming and deeply disappointing that the Government did not give a second thought to the impact of this decision on the lives of pensioners.”

Conservative MP Andrew Snowden added: “Given that previously Labour’s own assessment showed that cutting the winter fuel allowance could result in nearly 4,000 excess winter deaths – I think it would tell us everything we need to know, if they have indeed not asked for a risk assessment.

“It would make this a cruelly calculated political decision, to allow them to shift money from pensioners to their union paymasters, with no regard for the human cost.”