MPs will vote later on a controversial plan by the new government to remove the winter fuel payment from the majority of pensioners.
The move – which will see around 10 million people lose the payment of up to £300 to help with energy costs – has been defended by Labour, who said “tough decisions” need to be made in light of the £22bn “black hole” in public finances.
But some MPs from their own side, as well as charities and opposition MPs, are calling for a U-turn, saying the policy will leave less well-off pensioners with “a heart-breaking choice between heating and eating this winter”.
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Ahead of the vote, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will deliver a speech to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference in Brighton, where many in the audience will be in vocal opposition to the policy.
He will attack the previous Conservative government for having “salted the earth of Britain’s future to serve themselves”, but appeal for partnership with the unions to fix it, telling them: “The crisis we have inherited means we must go deep into the marrow of our institutions, rewrite the rules of our economy and fix the foundations so we can build a new home.”
Sir Keir will add: “Economic rules written in the ink of partnership will be more durable and long-lasting – whoever is in power. So it is time to turn the page, business and unions, the private and public sector, united by a common cause to rebuild our public services and grow our economy in a new way.
“We will keep to the course of change, reject the snake oil of easy answers, fix the foundations of our economy and build a new Britain. More secure, more prosperous, more dynamic, and fairer. A country renewed and returned, calmly but with confidence, to the service of working people.”
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The winter fuel payment was introduced in 1997 by then Labour chancellor Gordon Brown as a universal benefit, with all people above state pension age entitled to it.
However, the current Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves now wants the payment to be limited to those entitled to Pension Credit – around 1.5 million people – to save public money.
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Making the announcement in July shortly after her party won the general election, Ms Reeves laid the blame at the door of the previous Conservative government, claiming they had made “commitment after commitment without knowing where the money was going to come from”.
While she said the decision to scrap the benefit was “difficult”, it was “necessary and urgent” to fix the money problems that had been left behind.
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Chancellor: Labour inherited £22bn black hole
The prime minister has continued to stand by the move, insisting additional “safeguards” are in place for pensioners already on benefits.
He added: “I am determined that we will take tough decisions because the change which is improved living standards, people feeling better off, better public services, dealing with crime and immigration and issues like that, that change will only happen if we fix the foundations now.”
Further potentially unpopular measures, including possible tax rises, are expected next month when Ms Reeves delivers her first Budget.
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PM: Budget will be ‘painful’
But Sky News understands as many as 30 MPs are unhappy with the winter fuel payment cut, though they are likely to abstain on the vote rather than go against the party – especially in light of Labour suspending seven of its MPs in July for six months after they rebelled over keeping the two-child benefit cap.
The general secretary of one of Labour’s major union backers, Unite, also accused the party of “picking the pockets of pensioners”.
Speaking to Sky News from the TUC conference, Sharon Graham said the country was “in crisis” and the new government needed to “make very, very different choices” – including introducing a wealth tax “on the biggest and richest 1% in society”.
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Government ‘picking the pockets of pensioners’
The Conservatives are among the opposition parties putting forward their own motions to try and stop the cut – though with Labour’s large majority, the government is likely to win the vote.
Former prime minister and Tory leader Rishi Sunak reiterated his accusation that Sir Keir was choosing to “cut vital support for pensioners to fund an inflation-busting pay rise for train drivers”, calling it “unnecessary and wrong”.
He added: “The last Conservative government always made sure to protect our vulnerable pensioners, because we believe that those who have worked hard all their lives deserve security and peace of mind in retirement.
“But within weeks of coming into power Labour are cutting the winter fuel payments, with potentially devastating consequences.
“Labour MPs know this is indefensible – they must do the right thing and force the government to come clean about the impact this punishing cut will have.”
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PMQS: Pair clash over winter fuel cuts
Also speaking ahead of the vote, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the government “should do the right thing and change course” as cutting the winter fuel payment would “put untold stress on pensioners, with many facing a heart-breaking choice between heating and eating this winter”.
Confirming his party would vote against the cut, he added: “While we understand the dire state the Conservatives left the public finances in, now is not the time to be cutting support to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
“We cannot stand by and allow millions of pensioners to endure another winter in a cost of living crisis.”
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, also urged Scottish MPs on the Labour benches to follow his party’s lead and vote down the change in policy, saying: “The last UK government hammered the economy, public services and household incomes by imposing 14 years of cuts and Brexit.
“The last thing the UK needs now is more cuts from the Labour Party – and pensioners will face a bitter winter if these cuts go ahead.”
In a workshop in the far corner of the Styal prison estate, glass, plastic and metal are being smashed to the beat of pumping music.
Women at workstations are dismantling electronics with the energy of gym enthusiasts.
TVs and laptops, discarded at local recycling centres across England, have ended up here, on the edge of Wilmslow, Cheshire.
But amid the whiz of drills, the crunch of screens being separated from their plastic casings and the clatter of electronic boards ripped out and chucked in big bins, something else is being recycled – women’s lives.
“You get a lot of frustration out, because obviously a lot of girls have got a lot of anger, you know,” says Joanne*, who is serving time for drug offences.
She has joined this activity not for the £10 per 70 TVs she breaks apart, but because the programme – called Recycling Lives – could give her the skills and the support to keep her out of jail in the future.
Only 12% of women are employed six months after leaving prison, compared to 25% of men. In the general population employment levels between men and women are 78% to 72%.
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Ex-prisoners with a job are far less likely to re-offend. So, women prisoners are at a disadvantage. Often a man is connected to the crime they committed.
“For 90% of the women in prison, there’s always a male involved in why they’ve committed crime, it is the case with me as well,” says Joanne, who tells me she was pressured into dealing drugs by her partner.
Official Ministry of Justice statistics say that at least 60% of women in prison are victims of domestic violence and most will have experienced some form of abuse as a child.
Many, too, are mothers and they feel the guilt of separation every day. Joanne says of her son: “It’s my sister picking him up from school, not me.
“It’s my sister there on Christmas day, not me. Birthdays, all the special occasions. It’s heart-breaking.
“People think prison is easy. You are ripped away from your family and your children. It’s not easy.”
As if in illustration, the glass cracks on an iPad, as she peels it away with her screwdriver.
Official figures say there are around 3,500 women in prison and it is estimated that about half are mothers.
‘I’m trying to give them a future’
The workshop manager Yvonne Grime knows this all too well. A former serial offender herself, she’s the first former inmate at Styal to now hold a set of keys to the prison.
“The biggest thing for me [as a prisoner] was leaving my children,” she says, “and I still carry that guilt round, but I have come through it.”
Part of her redemption is to help the women in her workshop. The Recycling Lives programme transformed her life, and she wants to give back.
She says: “I’m trying to give them a future. I’m trying to give you some hope that they can that they can change.
“Get the children back, find a job, find a home. There is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Her work is part manager and part mentor. “When I first started, I thought I’m just going to come in and run this workshop,” she said.
“I didn’t realise I had to be their mum, their dad, their brother, their sister, the doctor, the nurse, the everything that comes with it.
“If I had a salary for every one of those professions, I’d be absolutely minted.”
Styal isn’t what you expect a prison to look like.
Inside the high fences and barbed wire are sixteen austere red-brick Victorian houses.
Once an orphanage, they’re now the prison’s accommodation blocks.
Ted the prison cat, wanders from block to block, and has already served several of his nine lives in the compound.
Along with recycling TV sets, women can learn to guide and drive forklift trucks.
They are quick with their tools, spinning through one appliance after another with remarkable and methodical destructive pace.
But the real advantage of the programme is that it continues on the outside. Only 6% of people who go through Recycling Lives go on to commit further crime. The general reoffending rate is 25%.
In a warehouse in Preston, former inmates are involved in recycling food from supermarkets and farms, then sent to foodbanks.
Here we meet Naomi Winter, who – three years since being released from jail – is now a manager at the food distribution depot.
The hardest thing about prison for her too was being separated from a child.
“I was put in prison when my baby is only three months old,” she said.
“So, it was like losing an arm, like losing a piece of my DNA.
“I still woke up for night feeds in the night and stuff like that.”
She says there wasn’t the mental health provision inside of prison to help her deal with post-natal depression, and she spent way too much time alone with her thoughts.
She was in and out of prison for drug offences and violence eight times by the age of 30 and first jailed aged 15, for breaching an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO).
She feels even short prison sentences can ruin lives, and says: “You take women who’s robbed a block of cheese to feed the child.
“They put them in prison for 28 days. They take the home, take the kids, they lose the family, and they get out with nothing. You just create a criminal right there.
“You’ve just created a woman who’s got nothing to lose. You’re also releasing them with a sleeping bag in a tent and telling them to go and sleep in the woods.”
Alternatives to custody
The government recognises that prison isn’t working for many of the women who end up there.
It’s why, with women being mostly non-violent offenders and serving short sentences, the government is setting up a Women’s Justice Board to look at reducing the number who go into prison with alternatives such as community sentences and intervention projects tackling the root causes of re-offending.
The Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, told Sky News: “For many women, prison isn’t working. Most women in prisons are victims themselves. Over half are mothers, with a prison sentence separating parent and child.
“That’s why I am establishing a new Women’s Justice Board, tasked with reducing the number of women in prison by exploring alternatives to custody for female offenders.”
Chief Executive of Recycling Lives, Alasdair Jackson says: “There are certain things we all need as human beings: One is a place to live, one is a job to be able to pay for that place to live and then a support network.
“But there are a lot more factors that women have to contend with; there’s children, there is maybe domestic abuse, there’s everything that goes on around that, but when you give people a chance, when you give people the skills that they need, it is life-changing.
“And when you change a woman’s life, you are often changing the family’s life and the children’s life.”
Prison is supposed to be part punishment, part repair job. But there are limited programmes like Recycling Lives, and for many women entering jail currently, the only recycling is back into criminality.
The world’s oldest man has died at the age of 112, the Guinness World Records has announced.
John Tinniswood was born in Liverpool on 26 August 1912, the year the Titanic sank. He was a lifelong Liverpool FC fan, born just 20 years after the club was founded.
He died on Monday at a care home in Southport, Guinness World Records said.
In a statement, his family said: “His last day was surrounded by music and love.
“John always liked to say thank you. So on his behalf, thanks to all those who cared for him over the years, including his carers at the Hollies Care Home, his GPs, district nurses, occupational therapist and other NHS staff.”
In April 2024, aged 111, he became the world’s oldest living man, following the death of 114-year-old Juan Vicente Perez from Venezuela.
Mr Tinniswood’s key advice for staying healthy was to practice moderation. “If you drink too much or you eat too much or you walk too much; if you do too much of anything, you’re going to suffer eventually.”
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But when asked the secret to his longevity after turning 112 in August, Mr Tinniswood put it all down to “just luck”.
“I can’t think of any special secrets I have,” he said. “I was quite active as a youngster, I did a lot of walking.
“Whether that had something to do with it, I don’t know. But to me, I’m no different [to anyone]. No different at all.
“I just take it in my stride like anything else, why I’ve lived that long I have no idea at all.”
Apart from a portion of battered fish and chips every Friday, Mr Tinniswood did not follow any particular diet, and said earlier this year he felt “no different” turning 112.
“I don’t feel that age, I don’t get excited over it. That’s probably why I’ve reached it.
“I just take it in my stride like anything else, why I’ve lived that long I have no idea at all.”
He lived through both world wars and was a Second World War veteran – having worked in an administrative role for the Army Pay Corps.
In addition to accounts and auditing, his work involved logistical tasks such as locating stranded soldiers and organising food supplies. He went on to work as an accountant for Shell and BP before retiring in 1972.
He met his wife, Blodwen, at a dance in Liverpool. They were together for 44 years before Blodwen died in 1986.
Mr Tinniswood is survived by his daughter Susan, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and lived to be the fourth-oldest British man in recorded history.
His family added: “John had many fine qualities. He was intelligent, decisive, brave, calm in any crisis, talented at maths and a great conversationalist.
“John moved to the Hollies rest home just before his 100th birthday and his kindness and enthusiasm for life were an inspiration to the care home staff and his fellow residents.”
The oldest ever man was Jiroemon Kimura from Japan, who lived to the age of 116 years 54 days and died in 2013.
The world’s oldest living woman, and oldest living person, is Japan’s 116-year-old Tomiko Itooka.