Scottish Labour vows to reinstate winter fuel payments

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Scottish Labour would reinstate winter fuel payments for pensioners if it wins the Holyrood elections in 2026, Anas Sarwar has said, increasing pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to follow suit for the rest of the UK.

Under plans put forward by Scottish Labour leader Sarwar, all pensioners would be eligible for some payments to help them with winter fuel costs, although payments would be tapered so that the wealthiest receive less.

The British government has faced a major backlash since July when chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that only people in receipt of pension credit or other benefits would receive the £300 a year payments. 

Sarwar told the BBC the proposals covering Scotland would “deliver a fairer system that guarantees everyone who needs support gets it”. He suggested that the system could be modelled along the lines of child benefit, under which higher earners get lower payments.

He also criticised the governing Scottish National party for failing to take advantage of the fact that winter fuel payments are a devolved benefit, and had instead “decided to hand the power back to the DWP” in Westminster. 

The change is designed to neutralise attacks on Labour from the SNP ahead of elections to Edinburgh’s Holyrood parliament in May 2026. 

But it creates a political headache for Starmer’s UK government which is already under pressure from charities, opposition parties and some Labour MPs to change tack.

One Labour figure said: “There was clearly a different way Reeves could have cut the payments and she may face questions about why they took the approach they did.”

Reeves presented the policy change — which saves about £1.5bn a year in government spending — as an attempt to plug the fiscal “black hole” left by the previous Tory government. 

The move means that about 10mn people who previously received the support will not get it this winter. The charity Age UK has estimated that about 2.5mn of these are in serious financial need.

Sarwar declined to say whether the UK government should backtrack on the move, although he said his proposals would constitute a “Scottish solution” to the problem of too few people receiving the support.

The Labour MP for Normanton and Hemsworth in Yorkshire, Jon Trickett, who has been a vocal critical of Starmer’s policy, wrote on X that Sarwar’s decision was an “important announcement”, adding that the “[UK] government should now correct its mistake and instate protective benefits to all who struggle”.

Maggie Chapman, of the Scottish Greens, called on both governments at Holyrood and Westminster “to take action now, rather than using the lives of vulnerable groups as a bargaining chip for future leadership bids”.