All four Labour MPs in Cornwall voted yesterday to remove the winter fuel allowance from pensioners.

Under the plans, the winter fuel allowance for pensioners will be limited to only those claiming pension credit or other means-tested benefits.

A Conservative motion to annul the Government’s cuts to winter fuel payments was defeated by 348 votes to 228, majority 120, in the House of Commons yesterday, Tuesday.

A total of 52 Labour MPs were listed as no vote recorded while just one voted for the motion to remove the cuts and keep the fuel allowance for all pensioners.

Both Lib Dem Cornwall MPs Andrew George, St Ives, and Ben Maguire, North Cornwall, voted for the motion 

The Packet has asked Labour MPs Jayne Kirkham, Truro and Falmouth, Noah Law, St Austell and Newquay and Perran Moon, Camborne and Redruth, why they voted against the motion and we are waiting for their response.

Labour says it had “no choice” but to cut the winter fuel payment, a Cabinet minister insisted.

Speaking to broadcasters on Tuesday, the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds rejected suggestions that the Government’s decision to strip all but the country’s poorest pensioners of the allowance could see some die of cold this winter.

Pressed on why the Government was pursuing the policy amid a mounting backlash, he told Sky News: “We have no choice.”

The full state pension is to rise by £460 from next April, according to official wage figures released on Tuesday.

But critics, including from within party ranks, have questioned why Labour is not targeting the wealthy instead of pensioners as it insists the cut is necessary to fill what it calls a “£22 billion black hole” in the public finances.

It is expected to cut the number of people receiving the payment of up to £300 by ten million, from 11.4 million to 1.5 million, which the Government hopes will save about £1.4 billion this year.

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Money saving expert Martin Lewis said he had spoken to some MPs on Monday night and they had their “buttocks clenched” about supporting the policy and had asked him to try to change the Chancellor’s mind.

He told Times Radio that many new Labour MPs are “totally torn” about the policy.

The Tories accused Labour of having failed to “properly examine” the implications of the policy.

“This has been completely rushed. There’s no need to do this as quickly as the Government has done, other than for purely political reasons,” shadow work and pensions secretary and Conservative leadership candidate Mel Stride told Times Radio.

“And it means that the implications of this, of course, have not been properly examined in the normal way that they would be, and which is why even trade unions such as Unite has described this as picking the pockets of pensioners.”