Public anger over the decision to strip winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners contributed to Labour’s hammering at the ballot box, Cabinet minister Wes Streeting has acknowledged.
He said there was no formal review of the policy despite speculation that changes were being considered to restore the payments to some who lost the handouts worth up to £300.
Labour lost the previously safe Runcorn and Helsby constituency in a by-election and almost 200 councillors as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK made sweeping gains in last week’s vote.
In response to reports that No 10 is considering changes to the winter fuel payment squeeze, Mr Streeting said: “At this stage, ahead of a spending review or budget where these sorts of decisions are normally taken, I wouldn’t be close to those sorts of discussions.”
But he told BBC Breakfast: “I know that people aren’t happy about winter fuel allowance, in lots of cases. We did protect it for the poorest pensioners but there are lots of people saying they disagree with it regardless.”
The Guardian reported that, while a full restoration of the universal handout was unlikely, No 10 sources said the Government was considering whether to increase the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance.
Mr Streeting told Radio 4’s Today: “There isn’t a formal review or anything like that going on. I do know that.
“But look, we are reflecting on what the voters told us last Thursday at the ballot box.”
He defended the decision to means-test the winter fuel payments and other “unpopular” measures such as the hike in employers’ national insurance contributions, arguing they were necessary to raise cash to address the various “crises” across public services including the NHS and prisons.
In response to the electoral backlash, he told LBC: “We have to take that on the chin, and we are. In Government, we’re genuinely impatient for change. We are going hard at the challenges that the public has set for us.
“And we’re under no illusion – and I think the voters have sent us a fundamental message ‘we voted for change with Labour last year, if you don’t deliver change, if we’re not feeling it, we’ll vote for change elsewhere’.
“So we’ve got that message loud and clear. We take the results on the chin.
“We’re back in Parliament today, picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves down, and with things like the GP announcement today showing the country we’ve got the message, when the Prime Minister said ‘go further and faster’, we’re on the case.”
His comments came as First Minister of Wales Baroness Eluned Morgan prepared to criticise Sir Keir Starmer’s administration as Welsh Labour prepared for its own showdown with Reform next year.
In a speech marking one year to the 2026 Senedd election, the Welsh Labour leader will say that she “will not hesitate to challenge from within”, with the welfare squeeze thought to be a particular concern.
Speaking in Cardiff on Tuesday, Baroness Morgan is expected to say when it comes to working with the UK Government: “Where we disagree we’ll say it, where we see unfairness we’ll stand up to it.
“And when Westminster makes decisions that we think will harm Welsh communities, we will not stay silent.”
She will add: “I will not hesitate to challenge from within, even when it means shaking things up and disrupting the comfortable.”
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said: “Looks like Labour are having a rethink about their winter fuel payment cut.
“Shame they didn’t listen to us before they made millions of pensioners struggle through the winter. But at least there’s time to fix it before next winter.”
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said: “The Government’s cuts to winter fuel payments have caused untold misery, with countless pensioners forced to choose between heating at eating.
“It beggars belief that the Government is only now waking up to the public fury and damage they have caused.”
