53 Labour MPs did not vote with government on winter fuel payments cut, figures show The division list for the vote has just been published on the Commons’s website, and it shows that, although only one Labour MP, Jon Trickett, voted with the Tories to try to block the winter fuel payments cut, another 53 Labour MPs did not vote. Some of these 53 Labour MPs may have had permission from the whips to miss the vote for one reason or another, but it is likely that most of these are rebel-lite votes – MPs refusing to back the policy, but not hating it enough to vote against, or not being brave/reckless enough to risk disciplinary action. Early evening summary MPs have voted to remove the winter fuel allowance from all but the poorest pensioners, with a significant number of Labour MPs abstaining. Mel Stride has been knocked out of the race to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative party leader after the second round of voting by MPs. The full UK state pension could rise by about £460 a year from April 2025, the latest wage growth figures suggest. Keir Starmer has warned trade unions that the “tough decisions” the government will have to take on public spending will include public sector pay. (See 11.38am.) He also promised a “politics of partnership”, saying that was what voters wanted. (See 10.59am.) James Johnson, the pollster who used to work for Theresa May in No 10, thinks today’s results mean Kemi Badenoch will struggle to make the final shortlist of two candidates chosen for the ballot of party members. Considering Stride numbers, looks like Tory leadership final two will be one of Tugendhat/Cleverly versus Jenrick All to play for at conference for all four though disagree. Stride numbers will split TT or JC James Heale from the Spectator has posted on social media the lines being put out by the Jenrick, Badenoch and Tugendhat camps following today’s Tory leadership ballot. Jenrick says he is glad so many Tory MPs have recognised the need for change, “hard though it may be”. A Badenoch spokesperson says she has “momentum”, with support across the parliamentary party, more shadow cabinet backers than anyone else, and party members “overwhelmingly” favouring her. And Tugendhat says he is a “proven leader” who acts on principle and has service at his core. Richard Burgon, the MP for Leeds East, who was suspended by Keir Starmer in July for voting to scrap the two-child welfare limit, voted against the government again on Tuesday. He said: I don’t characterise this as rebelling against the Labour leadership or anything like that. I view this as voting for the hundreds of constituents who wrote to me, hundreds of pensioners already in poverty, who wrote to me pleading with me to oppose this government’s policy. Asked how it felt to be voting with the Conservatives, he said: Well, I despise the Tories, and I think they are rank hypocrites. But for me it wasn’t about voting with the Tories at all. It was about voting with my constituents. He said he didn’t know whether he would be further punished by Labour as a result. That hasn’t been something in the forefront of my mind, but ultimately, obviously, I want the Labour whip back. I’m a Labour person. I joined the Labour party when I was 15 in the mid 90s. This is what a Labour party spokesperson said about the results of today’s Tory leadership election vote. The Tories whittled down a list of five people who played key roles in 14 years of chaos and decline, to four people who played key roles in 14 years of chaos and decline. Their failure to take responsibility for the mess they made, demonstrates that none of these candidates are cut out for the job. They’ve learnt nothing from their mistakes, and as they continue to fight amongst themselves, Labour is getting on with the job of fixing the terrible inheritance they left behind. Here is more on the winter fuel payments vote. From ITV’s Shehab Khan Multiple Labour MPs who abstained on today’s winter fuel payment vote tell me they were told they would lose the whip if they voted against. “I wanted to vote against but I would struggle to do my job if I did. Abstaining was the best I could do. I’m so angry,” one MP tells me. From Lewis Goodall from the News Agents podcast Am told there were several Labour MPs in tears in the voting lobbies when voting for the winter fuel changes this afternoon. Groups campaigning on behalf of the poor and the elderly have reacted with dismay to the winter fuel payment (WFP) vote. This is from Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK. We’re deeply disappointed, but not surprised, that the vote to brutally means-test WFP was passed today. As soon as the government announced it was instructing its MPs to support it this was the inevitable result, but we would like to thank all those in every party who voted against the policy or abstained. There’s been a lot of discussion about the government’s decision, but at heart Age UK’s critique of their policy is really simple: we just don’t think it’s fair to remove the payment from the 2.5 million pensioners on low incomes who badly need it, and to do it so quickly this winter, at the same time as energy bills are rising by 10%. It is crystal clear that there is insufficient time to make any serious impact on the miserably low take-up of pension credit before the cold sets in this autumn, and the government has brought forward no effective measures to support all those whose tiny occupational pensions take them just above the line to claim. It’s true they have agreed to extend the household support fund until April and they deserve some credit for that, but the HSF is an all-age fund that you have to apply for, so we know it will only help a small proportion of all the pensioners who will be in need as a result of their policy change. And this is from Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition. MPs have made the dangerous decision to condemn some of the most vulnerable pensioners to live in cold damp homes this winter. Many pensioners in poverty will now see energy bills higher than they have ever experienced in their lives. Parliamentarians and ministers should examine their conscience and the deluge of correspondence they have had on this issue from worried pensioners and back ways to mitigate the pain of the cut. We and others have given the government a number of ways they can target extra support to those pensioners most in need. One clear solution would be to extend eligibility to those on other forms of benefit and making more support available to vulnerable pensioners. But the Treasury could also look at a more comprehensive system of support for all of those living in cold damp homes, such as an emergency energy tariff or reform and expansion of the cold weather payment system. Back to the winter fuel payments vote, this is from Chris Smyth from the Times on how the authorised, rebel-lite abstentions (see 4.47pm) were allowed to happen. MPs opposed to winter fuel cuts were saying earlier this week that whips were encouraging them to find urgent constituency business that would allow them to miss the vote.. Normally, with parliamentary votes, government MPs are either for or against. This afternoon, however, Labour MPs divide into at least five categories. Voting with the government: 347 Not voting – with good reason: At least 8 ministers are in this category (see 3.54pm), but some of the other 53 Labour MPs not voting will be in this category. Authorised, principled abstentions: It is thought that a large chunk of the 53 non-voters are MPs who were not willing to vote with the government, but who were allowed to stay away. (See 4.57pm.) Unauthorised, principled abstentions: This is the group of MPs who refused to vote with the government on principle, but who did not have permission to miss the vote. It is being claimed that there are only about a dozen MPs in this category. (See 4.57pm.) Full rebels: Only one Labour MP actually voted against, Jon Trickett. Another five people elected as Labour MPs, but currently suspended, also voted against the government. (See 4.36pm.) But they don’t really count as rebels because they are outside the PLP (and may remain outside even longer after today). And here are the results with the changes from last week. Robert Jenrick: 33 (up 5 on last week) Kemi Badenoch: 28 (up 6) James Cleverly: 21 (no change) Tom Tugendhat: 21 (up 4) Mel Stride: 16 (no change) There were 14 Priti Patel votes up for grabs, but the extra votes acquired by the candidates come to 15. That is because in this round 119 Tories voted. Last time 118 of them voted; as party leader, Rishi Sunak reportedly abstained, and there were suggestions the two Tory deputy Commons speakers, Nusrat Ghani and Caroline Nokes, might have abstained too. Mel Stride eliminated in Tory leadership contest, as Jenrick remains in first place, with Badenoch edging closer Here are the results. Robert Jenrick: 33 Kemi Badenoch: 28 James Cleverly: 21 Tom Tugendhat: 21 Mel Stride: 16 Mel Stride is eliminated. And Robert Jenrick remains in the lead, although Kemi Badenoch has inched a bit closer to him. Bob Blackman, the chair of the Conservative 1922 Committee, is about to read out the results of the second round of voting in the Tory leadership contest. Here are the results from last week’s round one. Robert Jenrick: 28 Kemi Badenoch: 22 James Cleverly: 21 Tom Tugendhat: 17 Mel Stride: 16 Priti Patel: 14 My colleague Pippa Crerar says only around 53 of the Labour MPs who did not vote with the government today were not authorised to be absent. But she says many of those who were apparently authorised not to vote were MPs known to be strongly opposed to the winter fuel payments cut. This suggests that the government whips were ‘managing’ the rebellion (a sensible move), by creating a new category of authorised, rebel-lite abstention. There are seven Labour MPs who are technically independents at the moment because they had the whip withdrawn after voting against the king’s speech in July because it did not include measures to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Of those seven, five voted against the government today. They were John McDonnell; Richard Burgon; Apsana Begum; Ian Byrne; and Zarah Sultana. The other two did not vote today. They were Rebecca Long-Bailey and Imran Hussain.