Keir Starmer wins vote to cut winter fuel payments

Keir Starmer has survived another bruising encounter with his own backbench MPs in a vote over plans to scrap £1.5 billion in winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners. The government won a vote to means-test the payment (limiting it to those receiving pension credit) by 348 to 228. But 53 Labour MPs did not record a vote: some will have been genuinely absent, while others abstained as a way of registering their first flicker of rebellion. Jon Trickett was the only Labour MP to vote against the bill; he is expected to lose the Labour whip. In July, seven Labour MPs were suspended after a similar battle over the two-child benefit cap, showing that backbenchers are conscious of their (generally) narrow majorities and are willing to rebel against party leadership. The number of pensioners signing up for pension credit has more than doubled in recent weeks, but official estimates suggest that around 880,000 eligible people don’t currently claim it.

Sticking to the decision to means-test winter fuel payments, worth up to £300, became a litmus test of Labour’s seriousness about its credentials as a custodian of the public finances. The angst it caused among backbenchers was at least partly offset for some of them, and for ministers, by a forecast that UK state pensions will grow by £460 from next April, based on the latest wage growth figures.

But Starmer’s popularity ratings continue to fall, as voters grow tired of the gloom. Polling by More in Common shows his net approval rating now stands at minus 20 points – 31 lower than his post-election high.