LABOUR MPs have voted to impose a £1.4 billion cut on pensioner benefits – despite warnings it could kill elderly people without even saving the Government money in the long run.

Parliament has voted to scrap the universal Winter Fuel Payment, stripping around 10 million pensioners of cash to help pay their heating bills as temperatures begin to fall.

During a fiery debate on Tuesday afternoon, Labour were warned their plans put pensioners’ health and lives at risk – and critics raised concerns the cost-cutting move may fail to save any money.

READ MORE: Keir Starmer confronted over two-child benefit cap after TUC speech

The trade union Unite recently published research which said that the £1.4bn the Government hoped to save annually may be dwarfed by an increased benefits bill if all eligible pensioners signed up for pension credit, something union researchers said would cost £2.2bn a year.

And ministers faced criticism for rushing the changes through without publishing an assessment which critics said would have laid bare the impact on pensioners.

(Image: Newsquest)

The Labour benches were confronted with research the party had produced in 2017, when the Tories had proposed a similar measure, which had claimed cutting the Winter Fuel Payment risked the lives of nearly 4000 pensioners.

Labour had initially intended not to give parliament a vote on the cut but caved amid anger within their ranks.

READ MORE: Keir Starmer confronted over two-child benefit cap after TUC speech

SNP MP Kirsty Blackman challenged Scottish Labour MPs on pre-election promises there would be “no austerity under Labour” and skewered the Government for attempting to “balance the books on the backs of pensioners” in a bid to meet its self-imposed fiscal rules.

She said: “Make no mistake, this is a political choice, they are trying to meet these targets by balancing the books on the backs of pensioners. Who out there in the real world voted for this?

“This is a key test for Anas Sarwar and for Labour MPs from Scotland. Anas Sarwar said, ‘Read my lips, no austerity under Labour.’

“If that’s what Anas Sarwar [below] believes, if that’s the platform he put to the people of Scotland, if that’s what the Scottish Labour MPs were voted in on, how can they possibly back the Government today?”

(Image: Andrew Milligan)

She asked who was “the master of these Scottish Labour MPs”, adding: “Is it the Prime Minister? Is it the Labour Party? Or is it the people who elected them, who put them here who are going to go cold this winter because of their Government’s decision?”

Elsewhere, the party’s deputy Westminster leader Pete Wishart argued the cut would be felt more keenly in Scotland where pensioners would be “disproportionally hit” because of the colder climate.

READ MORE: Scotland Office £150m should go to Holyrood for Winter Fuel Payment, says Stephen Flynn

Wendy Chamberlain (below), the LibDems’ work and pensions spokesperson, said her party accepted Labour had been “left with an unenviable task of re-building our economy after the mess left by the previous Government”.

But she said it was “simply wrong” for the Government to “strip support from many of the poorest pensioners, just as energy bills are set to rise again”.

Chamberlain added that there was “cruelty at the heart of this cut”.  

Tory leadership contender Mel Stride, the shadow work and pensions secretary, challenged the Government to "look to your conscience". 

He added: "You know in your heart that these measures are wrong."

READ MORE: SNP and Labour neck-and-neck in Holyrood votes, poll suggests

But the Tories were accused of "faux outrage" over the cut, as Labour defended taking the axe to the Winter Fuel Payment.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall (below) said: "I would say to the faux outrage of members opposite, the faux outrage of members opposite who left 880,000 pensioners, the very poorest, not getting the pension credit they’re entitled to.

“And I would urge all honourable members to work with us and their local councils to make sure pensioners get the money they’re entitled to.”

Despite expectations of a Labour rebellion, just one voted against the cut, Normanton and Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett. In a tweet, Trickett said: "I will sleep well tonight knowing that I voted to defend my constituents."

There were 52 Labour abstentions including Scottish MPs Euan Stainbank and Kenneth Stevenson. All others voted for the cut. 

It is not yet known whether Stainbank and Stevenson had been given permission by Labour whips and paired off with opposition MPs.

Sky News reported that after those with permission to skip the vote were excluded there were just 12 MPs who defied a three-line whip to vote against the Tory motion to abandon the cut.