Sir Keir Starmer announces u-turn on winter fuel payment cuts
21 May 2025, 12:20 | Updated: 21 May 2025, 15:50
Sir Keir Starmer has announced a partial u-turn on winter fuel payments after months of furious opposition from the public and MPs.
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The PM said this lunchtime that he wants to ensure "more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments" going forwards.
He used PMQs to say that “as the economy improves, we want to make sure that people feel those improvements".
And he said that the changes would be confirmed at a fiscal event - likely to be the spending review in June, or the Budget in November.
The PM told MPs in the House of Commons today: “I have made clear... that as the economy improves we want to take measures that will impact on people’s lives and, therefore we will look at the threshold."
Many Labour MPs had blamed the controversial policy change - which saved £3billion for the Treasury - for Labour losing the Runcorn byelection to Reform earlier this month.
He added: “But that will have to be part of a fiscal event."
More than nine million pensioners lost payments worth up to £300 after Chancellor Rachel Reeves restricted eligibility for the pension top-up last year.
Other income-related benefits were also limited last year in a bid to save £1.4bn.
The move was not included in Labour's manifesto pledges, unlike its commitment not to raise taxes further, or return to austerity for public finances.
It came after the Chancellor told LBC's Shelagh Fogarty this week that she was "listening" to concerns and would be looking specifically at the threshold that the winter fuel help kicks in.
It marks the first time the Chancellor acknowledged she was looking seriously at the proposed threshold change, amid murmurs from Westminster of a potential softening of proposals within weeks.
Pushed by Shelagh on whether there was "real listening going on" in response to concerns voiced by Labour MPs on the level of public outrage on the doorsteps of Britain, Reeves insisted: “we’re always listening”.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, Sir Keir struck to the pledge and refused to rule out more tax rises later this year.
It comes after a leaked memo from Angela Rayner to the Chancellor Rachel Reeves showed she was pushing for more taxes on savers.
She proposed eight tax increases including reinstating the pensions lifetime allowance, and changing taxes on dividends.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned the Chancellor has been “boxed in” by her own fiscal rules.
She’s repeatedly insisted her promises to not borrow for funding day-to-day public spending and to get debt falling as a share of the UK economy by 2029-30 - are "non-negotiable".
Ms Rayner appears the most high-profile of multiple Labour MPs piling pressure on her to rip them up rather than slash budgets.
A Government source said it is normal practice for Cabinet colleagues to have such discussions and they should not be read as an endorsement of any particular idea or proposal.
“We don’t comment on leaks,” a government spokesperson said.
