Why did Starmer make the winter fuel announcement now?published at 16:30 British Summer Time

16:30 BST

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

One reason may be that rumours had reached overdrive that an announcement was in the offing. Given that ministers' conspicuous non-denials were becoming non-stop, there may have been a calculation that it made more sense just to acknowledge the inevitable now.

But it is also worth considering the broader context.

Winter fuel was by no means the only contentious element of this government's economic policy.

There is a rebellion brewing on the government's welfare cuts. Those are likely to face a vote in the Commons next month although estimates of how big the rebellion might be vary wildly.

But Starmer and his party whips will now be able to reassure anxious Labour MPs that they do listen to their complaints, even if they cannot address them in every area.

Fundamentally this is embarrassing for Reeves. She made a big, bold and early call and has reversed it within 10 months.

Her economic and political judgment is increasingly widely questioned within her own party - as demonstrated, just as one example, by the memo from Angela Rayner's department splashed across the front page of the Telegraph this morning.

The most important verdict on this reversal, though, will come from the public.

Is it a sign of strength from a pragmatic government willing to listen to criticism and act fast in response? Or a sign of weakness from an ideologically unmoored government which does not know what it believes?

We're ending our live coverage of Prime Minister's Questions, but you can stay across further updates on the winter fuel payment announcement in our main news story.

Image source, UK Parliament

Just before PMQs got under way, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a U-turn on last year's controversial cuts to winter fuel payments for pensioners.

It caught some off guard.

Kemi Badenoch continued to question the PM about whether he was going to change his mind on winter fuel - despite him announcing moments earlier that he was U-turning to make more pensioners eligible at the next fiscal event (you can read a full recap of their exchange here).

The Conservative Party has since offered a much stronger rebuke of the PM's announcement - calling it a "screeching U-turn on his flagship" policy.

Here's a lookback at what others have been saying:

• Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said "there were some weasel words there," adding that it's unclear who will get payments back and whether they'll be eligible for the coming winter
• Badenoch also took issue with the timing of the proposal, saying if Starmer waits until the autumn to present it, it will be "too late"
• Scottish First Minister John Swinney reminded people in a social media post that the Scottish government last November issued a policy allowing every pensioner household in Scotland to receive a winter fuel payment in 2025
• Consumer expert and journalist Martin Lewis said he's "very pleased" about the U-turn, calling the policy an "unpopular mess"
• Charity Age UK is cautiously supportive, but writes that the "devil is always in the detail"

• And our chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman writes that while those details will follow in the Budget this autumn, this is definitely a U-turn by the Starmer government

How many failed asylum seekers have been returned?published at 16:20 British Summer Time

16:20 BST

By Lucy Gilder

Let's return for a moment to PMQs, when Reform MP Lee Anderson asked Keir Starmer: “How many of these people that he's deported are failed asylum seekers who came on small boats or the back of lorries?”

The prime minister did not answer the question directly but said: “We’ve removed over 24,000 people.”

The latest official figures show that about 24,000 “returns” were recorded, external between the time Labour came to power in July 2024 and March 2025.

BBC Verify looked into these figures before and found that only 6,339 of these were "enforced returns", where an immigration officer might be needed to escort an individual onto a flight.

The majority were "voluntary returns" - and a significant number of these happen without the government's direct involvement or even knowledge.

Less than a third of total returns in this period were of failed asylum seekers. The figures do not breakdown how they arrived in the UK.

We'll be covering the latest UK net migration figures tomorrow when they're released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) at 09:30 BST.

Gareth Lewis
BBC Wales political editor

Image source, Getty Images

Wales’ first minister has welcomed the UK government’s decision to U-turn on winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Eluned Morgan had previously called for a “re-think” on the policy, which started being means-tested last year.

She said the proposed cuts had “caused real concern” for people across Wales and that she was “delighted” the prime minster had listened to concerns raised.

"We are yet to hear the details of the announcement, but I'm hopeful that significantly more people will now benefit from the payment,” she said.

Around 400,000 Welsh homes have been affected by the changes to the payment.

Image source, Getty Images

Zarah Sultana, an independent MP for Coventry South, says Prime Minister Keir Starmer's "half U-turn" on the winter fuel payments for pensioners "still doesn't cut it".

"Just raising the threshold still leaves many pensioners in avoidable poverty," she says, referring to Starmer saying during PMQs that he wants more pensioners to get the winter fuel payment.

"The government must reverse the cuts *in full* and restore universal payments."

Sultana was suspended by Labour in July for defying the Labour whip and voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

The Resolution Foundation says it supports Starmer's announcement to make more pensioners eligible for the winter fuel payment - but believes he should go further to raise the standards for young people, too.

"This is affordable at £300m and would benefit more than a million families," says Ruth Curtice, the think tank's CEO.

"But today's announcement must be seen in the context of the government's wider welfare trilemma as it also steers through controversial health and disability benefit reforms and prepares a new child poverty strategy."

Curtice argues that the government needs to also address tackling child poverty, and suggests removing the two-child limit on support.

This would show the government "is committed to raising living standards for all generations, and not just those beyond working age".

Charity Age UK appears cautiously supportive of the announced U-turn on cuts to the winter fuel payment, but adds that the "devil is always in the detail".

Director Caroline Abrahams says any changes will be judged on how well they help vulnerable older people heat their homes next winter.

She says a "social tariff for energy" may instead be part of the "longer-term answer", but for now the government needs to act fast to help people ahead of the colder months.

Social tariffs are lowered rates for electricity and gas given to lower-income customers by their energy company. They were phased out in the UK in 2011 in favour of a different subsidy.

Authorities in Scotland have since started working with energy providers to establish a social tariff programme there.

Peter Saull
Political editor, BBC East Midlands

Image source, EPA

Shortly after signalling the U-turn on the winter fuel allowance, the prime minister met with Labour MPs from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in Parliament.

Reform UK took control of both county councils in the local elections.

The MPs relayed concerns that voters raised on the doorstep during the campaign.

One MP says a change to the winter fuel payment policy showed that Keir Starmer is listening.

No 10 provided sandwiches and biscuits.

The U-turn was hard - the practicalities could be harderpublished at 15:00 British Summer Time

15:00 BST

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Image source, EPA

The prime minister says he wants "more pensioners" to qualify for the winter fuel payment.

That wasn’t easy to say from a political standpoint. But, in terms of delivery, it is easier said than done.

Devising a system where pensioners just above the Pension Credit entitlement level can now receive the winter fuel payment may be complicated.

Does the government increase the threshold for Pension Credit, the qualifying benefit for the payment, which would make more people eligible for other benefits too?

Would it bring in a new system entirely? Would it somehow tax those pensioners with higher incomes so they pay it back?

Steve Webb, partner at consultants LCP and former Liberal Democrat pensions minister, says there could be "formidable practical difficulties".

"The prime minister may find that he gets little political credit for a complex change which still leaves the majority of pensioners without any additional help with winter fuel costs."

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says it's a "joke" to suggest that Keir Starmer's U-turn on winter fuel payments is a reaction to the economy improving.

"Inflation has doubled since they took office from the Conservatives," Badenoch says, adding that Starmer isn't "running the economy well".

She says she wants to see pensioners receiving £11,000 to £15,000 a year in receipt of winter fuel payments.

She adds that if Starmer waits until the Budget to set out his plans, it will be "too late".

Badenoch also says the Tories don't support tax rises to fund extending winter fuel payments.

Image source, John Swinney / X

Scottish First Minister John Swinney has shared the above snap on X in a far from subtle jab at Labour's U-turn.

"A reminder to everyone in Scotland that Labour cut the winter fuel payment for pensioners and the SNP brought it back," he writes alongside it.

It is a reference to a Scottish government policy last November which allowed every pensioner household in Scotland to receive a winter fuel payment in 2025.

Back in September, Jon Trickett, the Labour MP from Normanton and Hemsworth in Yorkshire, was the only MP to vote against the cuts in winter fuel payments (other Labour MPs abstained).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he now says the cuts last year were a "major error".

"They ought to be reversed in total now," he adds.

Image source, UK Parliament

Image source, PA Media

Moving away from political reaction, consumer expert and journalist Martin Lewis says he's "very pleased" about the U-turn on cuts to the winter fuel payment, and hopes there is now time to "fix this frankly unpopular mess that came from a rush job".

Lewis highlights two main issues he has identified with the way the payment model is means tested, and says he believes the payments should be given to all pensioners who are on pension credit or who live in homes that are in council tax bands A, B or C.

"The threshold is too low. Most need earn under £11,800 a year to get it. That's an extremely low income when typical energy bills are £1,800 a year," he writes on X.

"Using pension credit, a benefit that has been known to be critically underclaimed for years, as the mechanism to prove eligibility is flawed.

"It leads to, on government's own figures, 700,000 of the poorest and most vulnerable pensioners, people who have total income below £11,800 a year are missing out. The issue that complicates WFP means testing is it's a household not individual payment."

The Conservative shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately has released a new statement:

"It says everything about this failing Labour government that the Conservatives have forced Keir Starmer into a screeching U-turn on his flagship winter fuel policy this early in the Parliament.

"Just two weeks ago, Kemi [Badenoch] told the prime minister to change track and he defended his cruel policy.

"After being adamant he wouldn’t change tack before this latest U-turn, the public will be rightly wondering if they can trust anything that comes out of Keir Starmer’s mouth.

"However this U-turn has come too late for those who suffered through the winter having to choose between heating and eating. Keir Starmer should apologise to them immediately."

Image source, PA Media

Tom Joyner
Live reporter

Around the country, millions of pensioners have relied on the winter fuel payment to afford rising energy bills for heating their home in the coldest months of the year.

I've been speaking with one of them, Audrey Sharp, a widow who lives alone in a small house in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire.

The 84-year-old tells me the government ended her payments last year, when Labour tightened eligibility for the allowance.

"All the bills are round my neck now," she tells me. "I’m quite ill sometimes, so I need heating. The electric and gas bills are quite high."

Sharp says she's relieved the prime minister says he wants more pensioners to be eligible for the payment.

While I was catching up with her, she tells me she had just finished lunch with around a dozen other seniors, many of whom she says were in the same boat.

"None of us know how much longer we have," she says. "So you have to make the best of what you’ve got for as long as you can."

Image source, PA Media

We can now bring you some more reaction to Keir Starmer's announcement on the winter fuel payment in the Commons earlier.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey says the PM's comments are "weasel words", and calls for "an early restoration" of the payment in full.

Speaking after PMQs, Davey says the government could make changes to the winter fuel policy in the spending review rather than at the budget so those eligible could receive their payments for this winter.

"There were some weasel words there," Davey says.

"I'm not sure if all pensioners will see their payments back," the Lib Dem leader says, adding that it's still unclear whether they'll be eligible for next winter, too.

Image source, EPA

Earlier, we heard Prime Minister Keir Starmer announce in Parliament that he wants more pensioners to be eligible for the winter fuel payment.

It comes after reports began to emerge that senior government figures were weighing whether to overturn their controversial decision to cut the pension top-up.

The payment is a lump-sum amount of £200 a year for pensioners under 80, increasing to £300 for over-80s, paid in November or December.

Last year, the government restricted the payments to those who qualify for pension credit and other income-related benefits, in a bid to save £1.4bn.

It was seen as a key issue at this month's local elections, at which Labour lost 187 council seats and control of the only council it was defending.

The payment was originally introduced in 1997 by New Labour as a universal payment for all pensioners.

Colletta Smith
Cost of living correspondent

Image source, EPA

Lots of people followed the government’s advice over the last nine months and applied for Pension Credit, but it has not been easy sailing.

More than 100,000 of those applications were rejected within the first few months of the announcement.

The threshold is a hard cut-off. You have to get less than £227.10 a week.

I’ve spoken to people over the last nine months who have been told their income is just a few pounds over the threshold.

That means they don’t get Pension Credit, and they have had to manage without their Winter Fuel Payment, which can be £300 for those over 80 years old.

Those on the cusp will be hoping today’s announcement will bring a warmer winters ahead.

Have thousands of pensioners been driven into hardship?published at 13:29 British Summer Time

13:29 BST

By Anthony Reuben

During PMQs - in which the PM signalled a possible change on winter fuel payments - Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: "His winter fuel cut has driven thousands into hardship."

In July last year, the government announced the £300 payment would be restricted to all but the poorest pensioners - those eligible for pension credit.

“Hardship” is not something measured in official statistics, but we do have estimates for poverty.

In November, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall revealed that government modelling estimated that 50,000 extra pensioners would be in relative poverty, external after housing costs as a result of the policy in 2024-24, 2025-26 and 2026-27.

But she stressed that the modelling did not take into account the steps the government was taking to increase the take-up of pension credit, which would mean they qualified for winter fuel payment.

The latest figures from February show that since the announcement of changes to winter fuel payment, 117,800 applications for pension credit had been approved, external - up 64% on the same period the previous year.

Starmer's winter fuel U-turn seeks to calm Labour nervespublished at 13:21 British Summer Time

13:21 BST

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

The details will follow in the Budget this autumn. But make no mistake, this is a U-turn.

The decision to means test the winter fuel allowance was one of the first announcements made by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves almost a year ago.

It was intended to demonstrate both the dire state of the government's economic inheritance and the new regime's willingness to take tough decisions in response.

It didn't quite turn out that way.

Early grumblings from MPs generally on the Labour left rapidly spread into more unexpected parts of the party.

Even those MPs who made a decent fist of defending the policy right to the end admitted that it was the most frequently raised issue by members of the public when they were out campaigning.

It was widely blamed for a bad set of local election results and the dismal defeat to Reform at the Runcorn and Helsby by-election on the same day.