CENTRAL Devon MP Mel Stride has told Prime Minister Keir Starmer that taking away the winter fuel allowance for hundreds of thousands of British pensioners is ‘not good governing’.

Mr Stride, who had hoped to become next leader of the Conservative party until he was ruled out of the contest on Tuesday afternoon, was speaking after the government won a vote on the issue.

A motion to stop Labour’s move to cut the allowance for all but the poorest pensioners was lost by 348 votes to 228, with just one Labour MP, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, voting against his party. Fifty-two MPs abstained, which was at the higher end of expectations.

Mr Stride, who is the shadow work and pensions secretary, said the cut had come as a ‘complete shock’ to pensioners.

He said Labour had offered no explanation about why the decision was so urgent.

‘This is not good governing,’ he told the House of Commons. 

He said the policy was ‘absurd’ and would cause ‘untold hardship’.

Newton Abbot MP Martin Wrigley, who also voted against, said: ‘Under Labour’s move, 10 million pensioners - more than 180,500 in Devon - will lose the payment of between £200 and £300. 

‘It’s not too late, I urge Labour MPs and councillors who don’t agree with the decision to push the Government to reinstate it. 

‘I’ve seen research from the charity Age UK shows the cut to Winter Fuel Payments will mean two million nationally will find paying their energy bills a real stretch and will be seriously hit by this cut. 

‘Now is not the time to be cutting support to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.’

Labour claims increases to the basic state pension will pay more than the annual one-off heating allowance they introduced in 1997, and that they will encourage greater take-up of pension credit by eligible households so that the winter fuel allowance will be more targeted.