Watch as Wigan MP Lisa Nandy speaks out on winter fuel allowance cut

She said: “We were the party that introduced the winter fuel allowance in the first place and this is not a decision that we relished or took lightly.

"We’ve done a lot of work to make sure that no pensioner will be worse off this winter than they were last winter.”

While the payment was previously given to all pensioners, from this winter only people on pension credit or certain other benefits will receive it, meaning about 10m are set to be stripped of it.

The Government has said it will help to fill a “£22billion black hole” in the public finances inherited from the Conservative government.

But some people have objected to the allowance becoming means tested and retired members of the Unite union staged a protest outside Labour’s annual conference on Monday.