Labour turmoil over cuts to the winter fuel allowance for pensioners intensified as Sir Keir Starmer defiantly ruled out a U-turn. Downing Street said there won’t be a change to the hated policy despite the party’s local elections disaster.

The intervention came just hours after Wes Streeting appeared to leave the door open to a reverse, admitting that axing the payments for 10 million pensioners had been an issue with voters on the doorstep. The Health Secretary said the government would be “reflecting on what the voters told us”. Welsh Labour leader Baroness Morgan also urged a “rethink” of the policy amid growing disharmony within the party.

Many Labour MPs have openly criticised the cut since it was announced by Rachel Reeves last year, but any changes could spell danger for the Chancellor.

One of the moves reportedly being considered by ministers was increasing the £11,500 income cap currently set for the payment.

That could dramatically increase the numbers eligible. But Sir Keir’s official spokesman ruled out any tweaks, insisting the policy will remain.

“The policy is set out, there will not be a change to the Government's policy,” he said. The spokesman added that the decision was taken to “ensure economic stability and repair the public finances following the £22billion black hole left by the previous government”.

He also pointed to an expected £1,900 increase in the state pension over the course of the Parliament and an extension to the household support fund as ways the Government was supporting pensioners.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said millions of people are “suffering” because of Labour’s policy.

"Labour broke a promise. They told people before the election that they were going to protect pensioners and the first thing Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves did on entering government was to strip away the winter fuel payment from millions of vulnerable people,” she said.

“It's not even going to raise the money that's actually going to make a difference.

“Labour is a party that won an election but did not have a plan for government and it's pensioners, farmers, businesses and families that are suffering."

Dennis Reed, director of the Silver Voices campaign group for the elderly, said: “The government’s approach is a bit lemming-like.

“They know that millions of people are passionately criticising the cut and calling for a U-turn yet they are still intent on running over the cliff with policy in a mass suicide like lemmings do.

“This is Starmer and Reeves’ poll tax - there are still four years until the next election, they still have plenty of time to reverse the cut.”

Labour was humiliated in last week’s Runcorn & Helsby by-election and shed nearly 200 council seats last week as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK made huge inroads.

Reform has vowed to restore winter fuel payments for all pensions “straight away” by slashing foreign aid budgets, closing down asylum hotels, and ending “net zero” policies.

Senior Labour figures have been discussing how to quell public anger, with an immigration crackdown expected next week.

Lady Morgan fears Reform making significant gains in Wales at next year’s Senedd election.

In a speech in Cardiff she said there were “two Labour governments working together” in Cardiff Bay and Westminster but insisted she would challenge Sir Keir where they disagreed.

Lady Morgan said: “The cut in winter fuel allowance is something that comes up time and again, and I hope the UK Government will rethink this policy.”

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 almost 10 million people who would have previously been eligible losing out.

Mr Streeting told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “These sorts of decisions are always taken around budgets and spending reviews. I wouldn't be close to those discussions.

“There isn't a formal review or anything like that going on. I do know that. But look, we are reflecting on what the voters told us last Thursday at the ballot box.”

He added: “I'm not going to insult your listeners, or indeed the voters, by pretending that winter fuel hasn't been an issue on the doorstep.”

Pressure has been growing after angry Labour politicians publicly blamed the winter fuel allowance for the dire performance.

One minister said: “It comes up on the doorstep all the time. Winter fuel will lose us the next election, it was a terrible mistake. But it's probably too late for a U-turn now.”

Labour MP Rachael Maskell has called on the Government to scrap winter fuel and welfare policies that she said are pushing voters away.

Dan Carden, the MP for Liverpool Walton, said: “People have had enough” as he urged Sir Keir that his party needs to “change or die”.

Backbencher Emma Lewell said the Government has made unnecessary choices that have cost the party at the ballot box.

She added the party needs a “change of plan” rather than a “plan for change”.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “This is a completely tone deaf response to the local elections.

"The public are rightly furious at the Government’s decision to rip vital support from millions of the most vulnerable yet ministers simply are not listening.

“From Winter Fuel Payments to the Family Farm Tax, this Government has turned a blind eye to millions of people who can feel the damage that these half-baked polices are doing. It is time to change course.”