‘Sitting in shopping malls to stay warm!’ Furious pensioner lambasts Labour's winter fuel update: ‘Betrayed the working class’

It has been suggested that the Government was considering a climbdown from its decision to means test winter fuel payments after a chastening set of election results last week.

But Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson told journalists today “the policy as set out will not be changed”, causing Russell to launch a fiery rant.

She told Tom Harwood and Emily Carver: “It’s absolutely appalling. Even if they had raised the threshold, pensioners in this country, if you have worked all your life in this country you’re on a pension of £220.20.

“If you have anything below £218, you can claim all of the benefits. That’s the people who have not worked hard all of their lives.

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“The hardworking people in this country, we’re talking about your hairdressers, your labourers, we’re talking about the working class. They haven’t been able to put money into their savings accounts, living on £220.20.

“That’s an impossible task and they cannot claim another penny. That winter fuel payment was a lifeline.

“Get yourselves down the shopping malls and tell Labour to go and see all the old people sitting round metros, buses and shopping malls trying to stay warm.

“They’re having to sit in the malls because they cannot afford to get a coffee.”

Continuing her rant, she lashed out at Labour’s claim that the winter fuel payment cut was a difficult decision to make but a necessary one to plug a £20bn black hole left by the previous Conservative Government.

She said: “They will hit the working class and WASPI women. Labour stood with the WASPI government for 10 years and now betrayed them.

“They have betrayed the working class in this country. They’re liars. They betrayed the farmers, they betrayed the small businesses.”

In an apparent reference to asylum seekers, she added: “The only people they haven’t betrayed? I am going to leave that to your imagination because otherwise, the police might come to my door.”

Labour ruled out speculation surrounding the handouts worth up to £300 which have been abolished.

Pressure is mounting on Starmer with a senior Labour figure among those calling for the prime minister to U-turn.

Welsh First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan said the decision was “something that comes uptime and time again”.

The decision last July to restrict the winter fuel payment to the poorest pensioners was intended to save around £1.5 billion a year, with more than nine million people who would have previously been eligible losing out.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told GB News he was not privy to any talks regarding the decision, but insisted Labour hears the concerns of voters “loud and clear” after many used the ballot box to voice their dismay last week.

Labour lost the previously safe Runcorn and Helsby constituency in a by-election and almost 200 councillors as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK made sweeping gains in last week’s vote.