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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday survived a rebellion over his government’s contentious policy of axing £1.5bn in winter fuel payments for 10mn UK pensioners.
The government won a vote to back the policy to limit the subsidy, worth up to £300, by 348 votes to 228, even though many Labour MPs expressed serious disquiet over the move and backed it through gritted teeth.
More than 50 of Labour’s 404 MPs did not vote for the measure, many of them deliberately abstaining in protest, although some were away from the House of Commons for other reasons.
Mel Stride, Conservative work and pensions spokesman, told Labour MPs: “Look to your conscience. These measures, you know in your heart that these measures are wrong.”
Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves offered no last-minute proposals for new measures to mitigate the impact of the Labour…