MPs to vote on cuts to winter fuel allowance as Labour unease grows

The Labour government has confirmed there will be a binding vote on whether to axe the winter fuel allowance for all but the poorest pensioners, as the former shadow chancellor Ed Balls said he had grave doubts about the decision.

- Jessica Elgot

The confirmation of the vote comes amid growing unease within the party about backing the plans. It will take place next Tuesday after the Conservatives submitted a motion to annul the government's change to regulations - a change that ordinarily would not be subject to a vote. Labour had said previously there would be no vote on the measure.

Balls said yesterday he thought the government needed "an escape route" from the policy and described it as "a mess". He said on the Political Currency podcast: "They need to find a creative way to do what they said they were going to do, close the in-year black hole, and find an alternative way to do it, which could either be modifying what they're doing on the winter allowance or finding some other way to close the black hole."

In a sign of unrest in the parliamentary party, a number of Labour MPs have signed an early day motion asking for the change to be reconsidered and given more time to be communicated.