Labour chair stands firm on pensioner fuel payment cuts.

Keir Starmer’s top team is unapologetic about the cut to the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners as the party chair warned “we have to get the money from somewhere” on the eve of Labour’s conference in Liverpool.

- DAVID MADDOX

Rising star in the cabinet Ellie Reeves, who is due to open the conference today, has insisted the government shouldn’t “paper over the cracks” as she admitted she understood that the party would face a wave of emotion if pensioners die this winter in cold homes.

Her warning, in an exclusive interview with The Independent, comes as Sir Keir prepares to square up again to the left of the party trying to embarrass him by demanding the reversal of the winter fuel cut.

Despite widespread criticism and calls for a U-turn after chancellor Rachel Reeves was given £10bn extra headroom by the Bank of England, her sister Ellie Reeves said that the government is sticking with its plans.

“We could pretend everything is fine and paper over the cracks. But it’s not going to solve any of the country’s problems. That’s why Keir talked about fixing the foundations.

“If you buy a new house and you know it’s rotten in the foundation you don’t just sort of wallpaper the walls, because, you know, in a year, it’s all just going to fall apart. You’ve got to fix the foundations.”

The issue of winter fuel and plight of pensioners is an issue which persists and is expected to dominate the four-day event, with the Unite union – which previously refused to endorse Labour’s election manifesto and supported former leader Jeremy Corbyn – proposing a motion to reverse the cuts.

But Ms Reeves has made it clear that the £22bn black hole left in the public finances by the Tories must be accounted for somehow.

“The decision about winter fuel, it isn’t a position that we wanted to be in. No one wants to be in the position, but you’ve got to make those sorts of choices.

“We saw what happened under the Conservatives when they lost control of the economy. People remember it acutely because they’re still paying more in their mortgages because of it.”