Winter Fuel Payment: How Portsmouth and Hampshire MPs voted as government set to cut pensioner benefit

MPs voted 348 to 228 to axe the payment for all but the country’s poorest pensioners, rejecting a Tory bid for the policy to be blocked. One Labour backbencher, Jon Trickett, opposed the Government in supporting the Conservative motion, while 52, including seven ministers, had no vote recorded.

Having no vote recorded does not necessarily mean that an MP actively chose to abstain – for example, some may be unable to attend due to other commitments. As well as the ministers, it is understood some on the list had been “slipped”, meaning they were given permission not to attend.

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A dozen of those who had no vote recorded were not authorised to be absent. Fifteen of the Labour MPs who signed a motion which called on the Government to delay implementing the cut were among those on the list. Of the seven former Labour backbenchers who lost the whip after defying the Government over the two-child benefit cap earlier this year, five – Apsana Begum, Zarah Sultana, John McDonnell, Ian Byrne and Richard Burgon – voted with the opposition. Two – Rebecca Long-Bailey and Imran Hussain – abstained, according to the list.

Number 10 had held firm against pressure to soften the impact of the cut in the run-up to the Commons vote, saying on Tuesday morning that there were no plans to widen eligibility for the payment. Ministers insist the measure is necessary in order to fill a “£22 billion black hole” in the public finances which they say was left behind by their Tory predecessors. But some backbenchers had said they feel unable to back the cut, which will see millions of pensioners lose the payment and only those claiming pension credit or other means-tested benefits continue to receive help with their energy bills this winter. The government’s working majority is 167.

Here is how the MPs in the Portsmouth area and Hampshire voted, according to the Commons division list. Politicians were asked to vote for or against a Conservative motion to annul the Government’s cuts to winter fuel payments. Those who voted against the motion backed the cuts.