PMQs: Why winter fuel payment grilling shows 'Teflon' Sir Keir Starmer is in total control

In the chaos of the past few parliaments, it was perfectly normal for MPs to vote against their own party, then attack the government during Prime Minister’s Questions.

But sitting in the chamber on Wednesday, less than 24 hours removed from government MPs voting to means test winter fuel payments, there was no stirring from the Labour backbenchers. Perhaps this was expected, with just one MP voting against the cut. But the message is still clear. Sir Keir Starmer has total control of his party.

So the issue of pushing vulnerable pensioners into poverty was instead left to the Tories, a party that included the very same ban in their 2017 manifesto.

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak used the majority of his questions to push ‘Teflon-like’ Sir Keir on the issue, but struggled to land blows. Mr Sunak asked for an impact assessment of the policy, which doesn’t exist. This is a valid criticism, but unfortunately, he refused to publish reports on cuts to Universal Credit and the Bibby Stockholm barge when in government. His question deserves answering, but Labour can just cry hypocrisy.

The issue for Mr Sunak, along with the three other Tory MPs who used their question to criticise the move, is the financial mess Labour claim to be cleaning up was caused by the Conservatives. Sir Keir’s party may be being dishonest about the extent of what they knew before the election, but this, much like the prisons, is still a Tory mess.

House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire

Another critic of the decision was the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who called for the Prime Minister to reverse a previous Conservative tax cut for banks instead. We are in the post coalition era, where a coalition minister attacks Labour for making cuts, rather than going after the rich. As one Lib Dem MP told me, this is Labour’s mess, and they’re “going to make them wear it”.

For the Prime Minister, he simply repeated this was all about the economy, stressing a commitment to the triple lock, as if the damage to his party’s reputation among pensioners was not already done.

Labour MPs are unhappy about the decision, but will not say so publicly and resent the Tories for failing to take responsibility of their role in the decision. As one Labour MP put it to me in the corridor, “£1.5 billion down, another £20.5 bil to go”.