Labour MPs urged to focus on future amid post-election discontent

Labour MPs “have to win the fight for Britain’s future”, a senior minister has insisted at the first gathering of the party in Parliament since its local elections hammering.

Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden told the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) it now has to fight “between our values and a nationalist politics of the right”, according to Labour sources.

Labour is facing a “battle for the very future and the heart and soul of our country”, he added.

The decision to means-test the winter fuel payment for pensioners is among the reasons blamed for Labour’s defeat at the ballot box last week.

Some MPs are urging ministers to reverse the cut, while others have voiced anger about forthcoming plans to cut back disability benefits, with one claiming he was willing to “swim through vomit” to vote against the proposals.

Speaking behind closed doors in Westminster, Mr McFadden is said to have railed against Reform UK, the party which gained most in the local elections.

He hit out at Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the new Reform Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, who vowed her party would “reset Britain to its glorious past” in her victory speech.

“That is not our project and it won’t be our project,” Mr McFadden said, as he said Labour was focused on the country’s “glorious future”.

He added: “Labour is always at its best when we look to the future. This is the fight of our lives, this is the generational fight in this new political era.

“I want to tell you we have to take on this new fight for the future – and we have to win.”

Mr McFadden had earlier told Labour MPs: “The big point I want to make to you is that a new fight is taking shape. It’s a fight between our values and a nationalist politics of the right. It’s a battle for the very future and the heart and soul of our country.”

The decision last July to restrict the winter fuel payment to the poorest pensioners was intended to save around £1.5 billion a year, with more than nine million people who would have previously been eligible losing out.

Anger about the policy on the doorstep has caused unease within the Labour ranks after Reform UK won hundreds of council seats and took the previously safe Runcorn and Helsby seat in last week’s parliamentary by-election.

The Red Wall Labour group has told the Prime Minister that “responding to the issues raised by our constituents, including on winter fuel, isn’t weak, it takes us to a position of strength”.

They called on the Government to “break away from Treasury orthodoxy otherwise we will never get the investment we desperately need”.

Welsh First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan, mindful of her party’s own electoral battles at next year’s Senedd contests, has also called for a “rethink” on the winter fuel policy.

Rachel Reeves refused to back down over the decision to strip winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners but insisted she understood voters’ concerns about the cost of living.

“That policy stands, it was necessary to put the public finance on a firm footing,” the Chancellor said.

She told reporters: “I do get people’s concerns about the cost of living.

“That’s why, whether it’s the triple lock, the national living wage, the cuts in interest rates, we are determined to put more money into people’s pockets.”

Elsewhere, another group of Labour backbenchers have made it clear they plan to vote against the Government when it brings forward plans to tighten the eligibility requirements for the personal independence payment, known as Pip.

Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate about the plans on Wednesday, Ian Byrne, the Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, said: “I will swim through vomit to vote against them.

“I cannot express to the minister the scale of the devastation this will have on disabled people in my constituency and indeed the country.”

Mr Byrne added: “This is not what the Labour Party was formed to do.”

Others including Richard Burgon (Leeds East), Rachael Maskell (York Central), and Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) also confirmed they would vote against the plans when they spoke during the debate.

New YouGov data suggests Labour is polling at its lowest level since the era of Jeremy Corbyn.

The latest voting intention figures show Reform on 29%, with Labour lagging behind on 22% and the Conservatives on 17%.

In another sign of discontent within Labour, former cabinet minister Louise Haigh suggested hostile briefings appeared targeted at female ministers.

After reports Lisa Nandy and Bridget Phillipson could face losing their jobs in the next reshuffle, she said: “I was really angry at the weekend to see the response to the electoral defeat that we had suffered at the hands of Reform to be that we should sack two female northern Cabinet ministers and two of our best communicators with those voters that we need to communicate with most.”

Ms Haigh told the BBC’s Newsnight: “I only ever seem to read briefing against my female former colleagues.”

Asked whether she thought the briefing was sexist or misogynistic, she said “all of the above”.