SCOTTISH Labour suffered not only defeat but a rebellion in Holyrood, as a former leader and a former deputy leader both rebelled to back calls to scrap the winter fuel payment means test.

MSPs debated a motion moved by SNP First Minister John Swinney on Tuesday as part of Challenge Poverty Week, calling for the UK Labour government to ditch a means test which will see 900,000 pensioners in Scotland and 10 million across Britain lose £300 this winter.

Mr Swinney argued: “Reversing this decision on the winter fuel payment will be a vital step in ensuring our citizens can afford to live in warm homes.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar refused to back the motion and instead called on the SNP to use £41 million in new Barnett consequentials to mitigate a means test he blamed on the “damage inherited from the Tories.” 

He told MSPs: “The decision of the winter fuel payment is not a decision that the Chancellor [Rachel Reeves] wanted to make.”

Only 14 Labour MSPs opposed the motion when votes were tallied, as it passed with 99 votes from across the chamber, including those of two Labour rebels —  former leader Richard Leonard and former deputy Alex Rowley.

Mr Leonard told the Star he did not “do it lightly,” but added “Giving the winter fuel payment to everyone is the only way to guarantee that everyone who needs it will get it.

“We know that the oldest pensioners are the poorest pensioners, many of them women denied access to occupational pensions and on low basic state pensions.

“There is no moral case for ending this payment, it is socially unjust, and the economic case does not stack up.

“The policy is wrong and should be reversed.”