Sunak accuses Starmer of taking winter fuel payments from pensioners and distributing them to “highly paid train drivers”.

Rishi Sunak accused Sir Keir Starmer of cutting winter fuel payments from pensioners in order to give the money to “highly paid train drivers”.

The conservative opposition leader used the Prime Minister’s first question time after the summer recess to criticise the government’s decision Cancellation of heating cost subsidies for the winter of pensioners who are not entitled to pensions, while at the same time approving salary increases in the public sector.

Mr Sunak said: “Government is about making decisions and the new Prime Minister has made a decision.”

“He has chosen to cut winter heating subsidies for low-income pensioners and instead give the money to certain unionised workers and inflation-adjusted pay increases.

“Can I just ask the Prime Minister why he chose train drivers over vulnerable British pensioners?”

Train drivers in London earn an average of just under £60,000 a year and will now receive a retroactive pay increase of 5% for 2022 and 2023, 4.75% for 2023 and 2024, and 4.5% for 2024 and 2025 – a total of 14.25% over three years.

The Prime Minister retaliated by saying that the government had been elected “to clean up the mess left by the opposing party”, adding that “there is no point in complaining” when the government had found a “£22 billion black hole”.

“So we had to take tough decisions to stabilize policy and repair the damage. This included targeted measures to pay for heating oil in winter while protecting pensioners,” he said.

Read more:
Changes to heating cost subsidies in winter – are you still eligible?
Black hole “probably bigger than 22 billion pounds”

Sir Keir said 800,000 pensioners were entitled to pension credit but were not claiming it and urged them to do so.

He also said that state pension recipients would receive more than £1,000 (around £200 a year) over the next five years due to the triple lock introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

It ensures that pensions are increased each April by an amount that exceeds inflation, the average UK pay increase, or 2.5%.

Most pensioners receive £200 a year in winter heating allowances, introduced by Tony Blair's Labour government in 1997.

Mr Sunak questioned the Prime Minister why he had decided to cut winter heating allowances for pensioners living on £13,000, just above the threshold to qualify for pension supplement, while “giving more money to highly paid train drivers”.

“I remind him that we inherited absolute chaos from the other party,” Sir Keir said.

“Under his watch, we lost an average of three million working days each year due to strikes.”

“But you can't fix the economy if the trains aren't running, and you can't fix the economy if the NHS isn't working.”

👉 Tap here to follow Politics at Jack and Sam's wherever you get your podcasts 👈

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also questioned the Prime Minister on winter heating allowances, saying a man called Norman had had to go back to work this year to pay for his wife's care costs, leaving her income “just a few hundred pounds above the pension allowance limit”.

Sir Keir replied: “We have made a difficult decision and I am not going to pretend that it is not a difficult decision.

“Of course, this is a difficult decision because we have to stabilize the economy. We have to stabilize the economy.”

He added: “You can't grow your economy. You can't fix your economy if you don't stabilize it first.”