Public fury over the scrapping of winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners contributed to Labour’s poor performance in last week’s local elections, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has admitted.
The backlash over the policy – which saw previously universal winter fuel handouts of up to £300 means-tested – has been cited as a key factor in Labour losing the Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary by-election and nearly 200 councillor seats to rival parties, including Nigel Farage’s surging Reform UK.
Mr Streeting acknowledged the anger, saying the Government is “reflecting on what voters told us last Thursday.” He conceded that many were dissatisfied despite the fact the payments had been retained for the poorest pensioners.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Streeting said: “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.”
While there has been speculation that Downing Street may reverse course, he insisted there is no formal review of the policy. “There isn’t a formal review or anything like that going on. I do know that,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme. However, he admitted that ahead of future fiscal decisions, “those sorts of discussions” could still take place.
Reports in The Guardian suggest ministers are considering tweaking the eligibility criteria rather than restoring the payments universally. One option reportedly under review is raising the £11,500 income threshold, above which pensioners no longer receive the benefit.
The controversial move to means-test the winter fuel payments – alongside other difficult decisions such as increasing employer National Insurance contributions – was defended by Mr Streeting, who said such choices were necessary to help fix “crises” in the NHS, prisons, and other vital public services.
Yet the electoral impact has been severe. The by-election loss in Runcorn and Helsby, a seat Labour had once considered safe, along with sweeping gains by Reform UK, has rattled the Government.
“We have to take that on the chin,” Mr Streeting told LBC. “We’re genuinely impatient for change. And we’re under no illusion – 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.’”
“We’re back in Parliament today, picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves down, and showing the country we’ve got the message,” he added.
The fallout has also sparked internal tensions within Labour ranks. In Wales, First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan is expected to voice strong criticism of Sir Keir Starmer’s Government, particularly on the welfare cuts. With the 2026 Senedd election drawing closer, Welsh Labour is bracing for its own contest with Reform.
In a speech in Cardiff, Baroness Morgan is expected to declare: “Where we see unfairness we’ll stand up to it. When Westminster makes decisions that we think will harm Welsh communities, we will not stay silent.”
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She will add: “I will not hesitate to challenge from within, even when it means shaking things up and disrupting the comfortable.”
Labour’s political opponents were quick to seize on the discontent. Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately remarked: “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.”
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper echoed the criticism: “The Government’s cuts to winter fuel payments have caused untold misery, with countless pensioners forced to choose between heating and eating. It beggars belief that they are only now waking up to the public fury and the damage they have caused.”
With winter drawing closer again in a few months, the pressure is mounting on Labour to reconsider the policy before it further erodes support among older voters – a group whose trust is already wearing thin.
