Labour has been accused of breaking parliamentary rules by “deliberately withholding” the winter fuel impact assessment from MPs.
Last month, official documents revealed that seven out of 10 disabled pensioners stood to lose their winter fuel payments because of Rachel Reeves’s cuts to the allowance.
The information was disclosed only after Labour was forced to publish an equality assessment under freedom of information laws.
Sir Keir Starmer was accused of covering up official estimates of how many elderly people could die this winter because of his controversial winter fuel policy.
The Conservatives now say withholding the information may have been a breach of Cabinet Office guidance and possibly the Ministerial Code.
Chris Philp, shadow Leader of the House, has written to Lucy Powell, the Commons Leader, arguing that Labour ministers acted in breach of “long-standing constitutional conventions on ministerial accountability to Parliament” by failing to publish this impact assessment ahead of Parliament’s debate on the issue.
He said the “appalling” decision left politicians in the dark about the extent to which pensioners would be worse off.
On Sept 10, MPs were asked to vote on the changes to winter fuel payments. More than 50 Labour MPs defied Sir Keir and refused to back his plan to strip pensioners of the winter fuel allowance.
Although the vote passed comfortably by 348 votes to 228, 52 of the Prime Minister’s MPs abstained and one voted against the policy.
Mr Philp explained that on Aug 30, Dr Luke Evans, a Tory MP, tabled a written question to Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, to ask whether an equality impact assessment would be published into proposed changes to winter fuel payments.
He pointed out that in response to written parliamentary questions, ministers are obliged to respond with anything that they would release in response to freedom of information requests.
The Ministerial Code states that ministers “should be as open as possible with Parliament and the public, refusing to provide information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest, which should be decided in accordance with the relevant statutes and the Freedom of Information Act 2000”.
On Sept 12, the minister for pensions responded to Dr Evans’s written question, refusing to publish the information requested. However, the following day, after the House had risen for parliamentary recess, Ms Kendall’s department published the impact assessment in response to a freedom of information request.
“This clearly breaches Cabinet Office guidance and possibly the Ministerial Code,” Mr Philp said.
“It is appalling that on Sept 10, members of this House were asked to vote on the motion, while the equalities analysis that the Government released on Sept 13 was clearly available, but the Government chose to withhold it from members before the vote.”
He went on to argue that he can “only conclude” the Government “deliberately withheld important information from the House, about a callous policy that will impact millions of our constituents”.
Mr Philp said: “It chose only to make it available once the vote on the regulations had been won, and after Parliament had risen. As a result, there would not be a timely opportunity for members of this House to question the Government about the impact that cutting winter fuel payments will have on their constituents.”
The impact assessment, published by the Government on Sept 13, revealed the groups of elderly people most likely to be affected by the Chancellor’s decision.
It said that 1.6 million disabled people who currently receive the benefit – about 71 per cent – will lose out, alongside 2.7 million people aged 80 and above and 7.3 million aged between 66 and 79.
The assessment concludes that couples are most likely to lose out, and that men are marginally more likely to be affected than women because they are less likely to be on the lowest incomes.
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