TATTON MP Esther McVey has slammed government for its ‘betrayal of pensioners’.

The scathing attack comes after one of the Prime Minister’s advisors admitted no impact assessment was done into plans to scrap the winter fuel payment for millions.

After days of No 10 refusing to answer questions, it has been confirmed no assessment into the impact on deaths and illness had been carried out.

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Ms McVey said: “The decision to remove the winter fuel allowance from 10 million pensioners was bad enough - especially given that they did it without being honest about it at the election - but to do so without any kind of impact assessment is appalling and callous.

“They will never be forgiven for this betrayal of our pensioners”.

Ms McVey’s criticism comes days after she spoke in Parliament calling on government to set out what assessments had been done.

All benefits regulations are required by law to be considered by the Independent Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC), which is usually done in advance.

Labour opted for the urgency provision, which allows SSAC consideration to be retrospective, which Ms McVey said equated to ‘bypassing SSAC scrutiny’.