Why I voted against cutting the winter fuel allowance
Richard Burgon (Credit: Milo Chandler/Alamy Live News)
4 min read
Gordon Brown introduced the winter fuel allowance in 1997 to help tackle pensioner poverty. It was exactly this kind of progressive vision that, two years earlier, had led to me becoming a Labour Party member as a 15-year-old.
The policy has since played a key role in boosting pensioner income for over 25 years. I simply couldn’t vote to cut this support today for millions of pensioners in need.
Many MPs have cited just how many letters and emails they've had asking us not to cut the winter fuel allowance. My inbox too has been inundated. What pensioners in my constituency have said to me is often heartbreaking. Here are just a few examples.
One constituent said: “I am 85 years of age. I have COPD, I must have the heating on. I will be unable to eat if I need the heating on. Please support our case to get the winter fuel allowance back. Thank you.” Another constituent said: “I do not wish to enter the hospital again this winter with flu and pneumonia. Last December, before (having to enter) hospital, we kept the heating on and ourselves warm. This year, we simply cannot afford to do the same, and I'm scared of the consequences.” Another told me: “My 100-year-old mother-in-law needs heating on many days in the year, not just winter. She's on a limited budget, so the fuel allowance was very important for her. She'll have to make cutbacks in other areas to afford sufficient heating.”
There are so many similar cases in my constituency alone. Age UK estimates that 13,900 older people in Leeds East are set to lose the winter fuel allowance payment and it is a constituency with some of the greatest deprivation in the country.
For me, the main reason I voted against this cut is because of the serious impact it will have on so many pensioners already living below the poverty line. My vote against this change was a matter of conscience given that I know that it is not only going to cause greater hardship for poorer pensioners but also cost lives.
Experts are warning that these changes to the winter fuel allowance will impact five out of six pensioners who already live below the poverty line. That’s 1.6 million poor pensioners who are set to be forced into greater poverty.
Nobody in the Labour Party doubts we have inherited a toxic mess from the Tories. But we should look at alternatives to balancing the books on the backs of poor pensioners. Our government needs to look elsewhere and especially at those with the broadest shoulders. Surely the energy companies who have made super-profits and the super-rich who’ve done so well out of the past decade should be made to pay a little more to avoid this cut to winter fuel allowance?
Our new Labour government has got off to a great start on legislation on workers' rights, returning rail to public ownership, on Great British Energy, in support of tenants' rights and much more.
This is the kind of real positive change we need after 14 years of Tory misrule. I am delighted to champion these and have voted and spoken in the chamber in their favour. But from time to time, on matters of deep conscience and great constituency interest, MPs will take a different view from their party leadership. This has always been an important part of our parliamentary democracy.
This Labour government will make a really positive difference in office. But this cut to winter fuel wasn’t in our manifesto. My constituents didn’t vote for it and it is already causing huge damage to our party’s reputation and support.
Today was a deeply regretful day, undermining such an important legacy of the 1997 Labour government. Next month’s Budget needs to be the moment when our government accepts it’s made a mistake and begins to rectify it.
Richard Burgon, Independent MP for Leeds East
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