City MPs vote in favour of Labour winter fuel cut

LUKE POLLARD SAYS DECISION 'HAD TO BE TAKEN' BY GOV'T

PLYMOUTH’S two Labour MPs have both voted in favour of taking away the winter fuel allowance for hundreds of thousands of British pensioners.

The pair – Luke Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, and Fred Thomas, the MP for Plymouth Moor View – both followed the party line in this week’s Commons vote on the issue.

And a furious Sheryll Murray, the former Conservative MP for South East Cornwall, who lost her seat at the last election, tweeted that her replacement, Labour’s Anna Gelderd, had “voted to remove the winter fuel payments for 22,490 local pensioners in South East Cornwall.”

A motion to stop Labour’s move to cut the allowance for all but the poorest pensioners was lost by 348 votes to 228, with just one Labour MP, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, voting against his party. Fifty-two MPs abstained.

Amid a furious backlash from pensioners, Mr Pollard took to his Facebook page to try and explain why he voted as he did.

“Tonight I voted to support means testing the winter fuel allowance and to support the poorest pensioners on pension credit being protected from any changes,” he said.

“This was a difficult decision the government has had to take to target winter fuel payments to the poorest pensioners who are on Pension Credit.

“This decision was necessary because the previous Conservative government made a series of unfunded spending commitments and left a £22bn black hole in the country’s finances this year which required immediate action.