For Labour’s new MPs, a controversial vote to scrap the universal pensioners’ Winter Fuel Payment is a brutal wake-up call to the realities of life at Westminster and their place in the party’s pecking order.

Just two months into his premiership, Sir Keir Starmer has already seen off one rebellion, suspending seven of his MPs for voting against his programme for government.

Now he faces a further challenge on Tuesday when his party will be instructed to vote to approve his decision to cut winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners to save £1.4bn against what Chancellor Rachel Reeves calls a £22bn “black hole” left by the Conservatives. Freshman MPs who only had three weeks at Westminster before the summer break are back to transactional politics with a bump.

“I’ve been talking to new colleagues this week, who are very quickly waking up to the fact that they campaigned on an election ticket to do their best by their constituents, and then they get here and find they have no say and no input into decision-making. They’re trying to alter something that’s been decided above their pay grade, and they can’t change it,” one Labour MP told i. “This is a stark reminder that they are lobby-fodder. They are abruptly coming to terms with the fact that they are wallpaper behind the leader: their job is to stand and clap.”

The government is encouraging those eligible to instead claim pension credit, which allows them to access the fuel payments of between £200 and £300. Ringleader rebel MP Rachel Maskell has warned that some older people could die of cold this winter because of the changes. The Government has been telling the dozen or so rebels that increases to the state pension because of the triple lock – which guarantees it rises by the highest of prices, wages or 2.5 per cent – have made the winter fuel payments less significant over the years. Some MPs have urged the Treasury to taper the payment to help lower income families.

Given Labour’s current working majority in the Commons is 167, it would require an enormous rebellion for the government to stand any risk of being defeated. Nonetheless, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, alongside government whips, have spent the last fortnight explaining the decision to potential rebels, including new MPs.

“Liz told us ‘Remember, this isn’t the only difficult decision we........

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