No option but to cut winter fuel help – Jo Stevens

Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens has said “we have been left with no alternative” when challenged about Labour’s policy to cut the winter fuel allowance.

The Cardiff Central MP was speaking from Liverpool at the start of the Labour Party Conference.

“We have inherited a dire economic situation from the Conservative government,” Stevens told the BBC’s Politics Wales.

“The first line of our manifesto on which we were elected – with an enormous mandate, including in Wales – where we won 27 of the 32 seats – was to bring economic stability to the country.”

“We can only fix the foundations if we sort that out and we have to make some tough decisions early on,” she said.

Stevens added that there were eligible pensioners in Wales who were not claiming pension credit, which was worth on average over £3,900 a year.

Cutting winter fuel payments is expected to affect 400,000 homes in Wales
© Getty Images

“MPs across Wales are working to make sure, along with colleagues in councils and Welsh government, that people who are eligible apply for it.”

According to UK government estimates, the decision by Sir Keir Starmer’s new Labour government to cut winter fuel payments for most pensioners is expected to affect 400,000 homes in Wales.

The change will mean that only those pensioners receiving pension credits or other benefits will be eligible for the payment, which is worth up to £300.

Stevens also responded to comments by First Minister Eluned Morgan who likened her influence on Starmer to her influence on Donald Trump.

Speaking to Welsh programme Y Byd yn ei Le on S4C, Morgan said: “Let us not overstate my influence” on the UK Labour leader and prime minister.

Asked why she had not called Starmer to ask for a rethink on winter fuel payment cuts, she said: “I could call on Donald Trump to do things too.”

First Minister Eluned Morgan said she had no more influence on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer than she did on Donald Trump
© PA Media

Stevens dismissed any suggestion that this showed little respect between the two governments.

“If you just look at what’s happened in the last 12 weeks, the relationship between UK government and Welsh government has completely transformed,” Stevens insisted.

“We’ve made a number of announcements around north Wales rail for example, where we’re going to be increasing the number of trains by 50%.

“I’ve worked closely with Welsh government in relation to Tata and the better deal that as a UK government we have achieved for the Tata workforce.

“And the announcement I made in July, within weeks of coming into office, about £13.5m for a transition board to help workers affected by the transition in Port Talbot and downstream.

“There are lots of areas where we’re working together.”

Analysis by political reporter Teleri Glyn Jones

Welsh Labour will have plenty to discuss as they congregate in Liverpool at their first UK Labour conference since a landslide victory at the general election.

After promising a reset to the relationship between the UK and Welsh governments under the Labour banner, First Minister Eluned Morgan raised eyebrows this week by saying she had no more influence on Sir Keir Starmer than she did on Donald Trump.

But this week is a chance to change that.

With other parties like Reform and Plaid Cymru fielding a real challenge to Labour’s century-long dominance of Wales at the next Senedd election in 2026, Morgan will be using the party conference to impress upon her Westminster colleagues the need for her to deliver.

Waiting lists are at a record high and public services in Wales, like social care, transport and schools, need investment.

Can she convince the prime minister that he has as much to lose as she does if Labour falls at the next political hurdle?