Scottish Tories are demanding to keep Winter Fuel Allowances that the party wants to take from up to ten million pensioners across the UK – because it is colder north of the border.
David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, said the controversial proposal to means-test the payments of up to £300 would be dropped from the Conservative manifesto in Scotland.
“The specific view in relation to Scotland is that, obviously we have different climatic issues,” Mr Mundell told The Herald newspaper in Glasgow.
The demand for an exemption came as controversy grew over the Conservative plans to curb the fuel payments, to head off a deepening crisis in social care.
It could cause difficulties for Conservative candidates in the North of England, which also has lower temperatures than the Tory heartlands in the South.
Significantly, Theresa May has made a determined pitch for Northern Labour seats – particularly those that voted for Brexit – launching her manifesto in Halifax, a Labour-held marginal.
The Conservatives have refused to say how many pensioners will lose the annual payments of up to £300, to help with winter fuel bills, when they are means-tested.
But it is expected that only the poorest, those claiming pension credit, will still receive them – which would mean ten million pensioners losing out.
The plans have been branded “sick and sneaky” by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, condemning more pensioners to fuel poverty and even death from the winter cold.
Mr Mundell insisted he had persuaded the Prime Minister that her party in Scotland should be allowed to offer an exclusion, saying: “That’s devolution.”
“We have a different geography and there are far more people off-grid, who receive their fuel from not the gas or electricity grid but in terms of liquid gas, for example,” he said.
“There is a different backdrop in Scotland in relation to both winter and fuel and that’s why we believe in the Scottish Conservatives it should continue as a universal benefit,” added the Scottish Secretary.
Scotland may be able to afford to keep the payments - as it has retained other benefits - because it receives much higher funding-per-head than England, under the controversial Barnett Formula.
Labour has warned of a “triple whammy” about to hit pensioners, including a proposal to scrap the “triple lock” guarantee of rising pension payments.
Pensions will only rise by the higher of earnings or inflation, after 2020, instead of by at least 2.5 per cent, as under the triple lock supported by Labour.
Meanwhile, thousands of pensioners who own their properties will have to pay for care they receive in their own homes, the Prime Minister announced.
Mr Mundell’s comments came as Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, prepared to make a direct pitch to Labour voters, as she launches her party's General Election manifesto.
“Let me do a job for you. In great swathes of the country, it is only the Scottish Conservatives who are strong enough to take on the SNP. And in many places we can only win if you join with us,” Ms Davidson will say.
