A trade union has been left infuriated after Sir Keir Starmer’s allies rescheduled a crunch vote on the winter fuel payment cut on the day of a funeral of a former senior member. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has teamed up with Unite to push a motion at the Labour conference opposing the removal of the payments from 10 million pensioners.

A vote on reversing the cut had been expected to take place on Monday but could now be pushed back to Wednesday.

Unison and GMB understood to be likely to back motion to reverse policy. No 10 is braced for a potential defeat on a Labour conference vote to condemn cuts to the winter fuel allowance, as major trade unions lined up to back the motion to reverse Rachel Reeves’s decision.

Furious trade unions demanded answers from Labour this morning after party officials were accused of deliberately ducking a vote on the end of universal Winter Fuel Credit. Unite the Union and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) were left angry when a motion calling for the Government to U-turn on its decision was not selected to be voted on at

Labour has delayed a potentially humiliating vote on winter fuel payment cuts at the party's conference. A motion put forward by trade unions urging the Government to U-turn on the policy to restrict the allowance to only the poorest pensioners was due to take place today at the gathering in Liverpool.

Unite is set to force a vote in Liverpool tomorrow to reverse the government's decision to scrap the winter fuel payment