Carol Vorderman has slammed Keir Starmer and Labour over the winter fuel bill allowance axe as she rates them a 2/10, asking ‘What message are you giving us?’
The scrapping of the winter fuel payment was approved by the Commons yesterday amid claims of tears and recriminations.
Some 10 million pensioners will not get the allowance – worth up to £300 – this year after MPs signed off the controversial measure by 348 to 228.
Former BBC Radio Wales presenter and Countdown star Vorderman slammed Labour for scrapping it, saying she ‘cannot understand’ why the Prime Minister made the move.
The 63-year-old, who staunchly supported Labour throughout the general election campaign, said she now rates them as a 2/10.
Carol Vorderman called on Keir Starmer to apologise for the winter fuel payment cut
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Speaking on Woman’s Hour, she said: ‘I think Labour has done many good things since they came in – the Rwanda Bill and how they dealt with the riots.
‘I cannot understand how they have scrapped the winter fuel allowance for 10million.
‘I understand for the wealthier pensioners – I will be one in two years time and I won’t need it, as many don’t.
‘But the level to which they’ve cut it is wrong, it’s categorically wrong.
‘It saddens me that its one of the first things in terms of finance that they’ve done.
‘I think: What message are you giving us Labour?’
She previously said she was ‘astonished’ that this was the ‘first thing’ the party decided to do after forming a new government and she felt the Party had ‘duped’ the public to get into power.
Vorderman told Sky News: ‘I am shocked because, even extracting the fact that many pensioners will be suffering because of it… it is unbelievable that this new Labour government the first thing they do is that?
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‘It is not, I don’t believe, what they were voted in to do – it is quite astonishing really.’
Just one Labour MP, veteran left-winger Jon Trickett, supported a Tory motion to block the move, and now faces having the whip suspended.
Many rebels stepped back from the brink after Sir Keir ruthlessly suspended the whip from a group who voted to abolish the two-child benefit cap.
Ministers have been pointing to an expected £460 rise in the state pension next year in a bid to defuse the row.
Official figures typically used to set the increase in April showed earnings going up by four per cent.
The former Countdown star said of the winter fuel allowance announcement: ‘I am shocked because, even extracting the fact that many pensioners will be suffering because of it’
The 63-year-old, who staunchly supported Labour throughout the general election campaign, added that she felt the Party had ‘duped’ the public to get into power
Sir Keir and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have been highlighting the prospect of a hike to offset the loss of up to £300 from the winter fuel allowance.
Ms Reeves previously told panicking Labour MPs she would not back down – and suggested pensioners could afford to tighten their belts this winter.
The Chancellor said she did not ‘relish’ the cut, but warned there would be ‘more difficult decisions to come’ in next month’s Budget.
Ministers have refused to publish an assessment of the likely impact of the cut, which will save £1.5billion a year.
The ‘triple lock’ means the state pension rises by the highest out of earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent. For April the earnings figure will almost certainly be the top figure.