"Cowards!" Doncaster MPs under fire for backing winter fuel allowance cuts
Doncaster’s four Labour MPs have come under fire from voters for backing cuts to the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
Opposition MPs failed to block Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to cut winter fuel payments for most pensioners – with a total of 348 MPs backing the government, with 228 supporting the opposition motion.
Doncaster North MP Ed Miliband, Doncaster Central’s Sally Jameson, Lee Pitcher, who represents Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme and John Healey, MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough, all backed the Government, voting to support the cut.
But the decision has been met with anger by Doncaster voters who blasted the four over their stance.
One stormed: “Cowards. Not my representatives.”
Another said: “They won’t vote against Starmer and his sidekicks, only interested in themselves and keeping their salary and job.
“I wouldn’t trust anything any of them say. They have no values.”
Another posted: “They all know it's wrong but won't vote against Starmer.”
"No longer the party that looks after the working class people,” wrote another.
“Not a decent bone in their body - as long as they get all their money and freebies that’s all they bothered about,” stormed another constitiuent.
And another warned: “If they support the bill, then their constituents who they are supposed to represent, should not forget them. They are paid by the tax payers to serve the people,but they forget that. We will not.”
Another wrote: “The party of working people? Yeah right. For the many, but not for you.”
During a heated Commons debate before the vote, Conservative MP Esther McVey said Labour was "out of touch with the public" and called for an impact assessment on the change.
Labour MP Anna Dixon said her party was not to blame for the need to make a cut, pointing the finger at a Tory "scorched earth policy.”
Earlier, Keir Starmer told the TUC conference "we won't be reckless" with people's money and again said Labour had inherited a "£22bn black hole" from the previous Conservative government and would have to make difficult decisions.
Last night Chancellor Rachel Reeves met Labour backbenchers - in an attempt to quell dissent about the plans to restrict payments to all but the poorest pensioners.