THE MP for Taunton and Wellington, Gideon Amos, has backed a motion in Parliament to block government plans to scrap winter fuel payments for most pensioners.

Age UK estimates that 21,300 older people across the constituency are set to lose the payment – that’s 90% of people aged 66 and over.

If passed, the Liberal Democrat motion would protect local pensioners by blocking the government’s changes and restoring their winter fuel payments.

It is set to be tabled as Parliament returns, Monday, September 1, and has been backed by all 72 of the party’s MPs.

Mr Amos said: “I’ve heard from countless pensioners across Taunton and Wellington worried about losing this vital support and how they will afford their energy bills this winter.

“Stripping support from many of the poorest pensioners in our area, just when energy bills are set to rise again, is simply wrong. It could force vulnerable elderly people in our community to choose between eating and heating this winter.

“That is why I, and my fellow Liberal Democrat MPs, will do everything we can to block these plans as soon as Parliament returns.

“I recognise that the new government faces difficult choices after the appalling mess left by the Conservatives.

“But a rethink is urgently needed so that poorer and vulnerable pensioners in our community get the fair deal I, and others, campaigned for in the election, and continue, to get the support they so desperately need.”