Nine of Devon’s thirteen MPs voted in favour of a motion, moved in the House of Commons on Tuesday by Conservative Central Devon MP Mel Stride, to annul the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2024.
Better known as the legislation the government used to scrap the winter fuel payment, the new regulations have taken away an allowance of between £200 and £300 intended to cover the additional cost of domestic heating during the winter months for around 10 million pensioners in England and Wales.
Only pensioners who claim Pension Credit or other means-tested benefits will now be eligible for the social security allowance, after the government defeated the motion by 348 to 228.
52 Labour MPs did not vote, of whom only a dozen had been authorised not to attend by the party. One Labour MP, Jon Trickett, voted in favour.
Exeter Labour MP Steve Race voted with the government against the motion, as did Luke Pollard, Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton & Devonport and Fred Thomas, Labour MP for Plymouth Moor View.
Exmouth & Exeter East Conservative MP David Reed voted in favour of the motion, as did Rebecca Smith, Conservative MP for South West Devon, and Mel Stride.
All Devon’s Liberal Democrat MPs also voted in its favour. These are Richard Foord for Honiton and Sidmouth, Martin Wrigley for Newton Abbot, Caroline Voaden for South Devon, Ian Roome for North Devon, Rachel Gilmour for Tiverton and Minehead and Steve Darling for Torbay.
Geoffrey Cox, the Conservative MP for Torridge & Tavistock, was absent.
