Keir Starmer told Labour faces 'existential threat' as top minister issues Reform warning

Keir Starmer has been warned Labour faces an "existential threat" amid growing alarm at voter anger at cuts to winter fuel and disability benefits.

The Red Wall group of MPs urged the Prime Minister to “act now” to win back voters in the North and Midlands following last week's local election bruising. Anger at last year's decision to axe the winter fuel payment for around 10 million pensioners has spooked MPs, who have been urging Mr Starmer to change course.

And several MPs lined up to say they would vote against "catastrophic" cuts to disability benefits. The plans, announced by Work and Secretary Liz Kendall in March, come as part of an overhaul of the social security system that aims to slash £5billion a year from the welfare bill by 2030.

Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden told Labour MPs they must "win the fight for Britain’s future” as he vowed to take on Reform UK. Speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary , the top minister said: "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.”

He rejected Reform's call for a return to Britain's past, saying Labour was focused on the country’s “glorious future”. Mr McFadden added: “This is the fight of our lives, this is the generational fight in this new political era.”

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Ms Kendall said the system was failing those it was supposed to help and more people needed support to get back into work. But the move, which was branded "cruel" by disability charities, will push an additional 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – into relative poverty, according to a Government's impact assessment.

The Labour Red Wall Group, which has around 45 members, said: “Our voters told us loudly and clearly that we have not met their expectations. The response that the Government will go further and faster on the Plan for Change has fallen on deaf ears."

It added: "Responding to the issues raised by our constituents, including on winter fuel, isn’t weak, it takes us to a position of strength.”

Bassetlaw MP Jo White said angry voters repeatedly raised the winter fuel cut on the doorstep. Describing a meeting with Red Wall MPs, she told the : "The anger in the room was palpable because we could all sense the vote for Labour we had in 2024 had just melted away.

"We always said people voted for Labour for change. They are not loyal to Labour any more as they used to be in the past and we have to hold that vote in. I see it as an existential threat."

Challenged on the winter fuel cut at , Mr Starmer said: "The number one job of this Government was to put our finances back in order after the last government lost control. That is to deal with the £22 billion black hole that they left. Because of our action, we've stabilised the economy."

He said opposition parties had no plans on how to fix the problems facing the country. "Broken public finances, interest rates through the roof, waiting lists at all time high, because no other party in this House is prepared to say how they would put the finances straight," he said.

In Parliament, several Labour MPs said they would oppose cuts to Personal Independence Payments (PIP) as No10 braces for the biggest revolt of Mr Starmer's premiership so far. The benefit helps with extra costs associated with being sick or disabled, regardless of employment status.

Veteran left-wing MP said public anger "boiled over" in last week's local election results. In a stark warning, she said: "Some of us are old enough to remember Mrs Thatcher and her poll tax and it was her undoing. It is not too late to drop the winter fuel [cut] and the cuts to PIP and I plead with my government to do so."

Labour MP Rachael Maskell said: "We are better than this. Let's vow to stop such pernicious cuts and rewrite the story with the voices, experiences and hope of disabled people. "I will be voting against these cuts because I am Labour and disabled people matter."

Cat Eccles, the Labour MP for Stourbridge, said she had "grave concerns" over proposals to restrict eligibility for PIP and also warned she would vote against. She said: "The narrative being created is that of scroungers and cheats when in reality disabled people are fighting tooth and nail for every little scrap that they get".

Labour MP Nadia Whittome warned: "If the government goes through with these disability benefit cuts it will be making a huge mistake which the public will not forgive us for."

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