Full list of Tory MPs who voted for real-terms benefits and pensions cut

Tory MPs last night voted through a real-terms cut of benefits and pensions.

A vote held on Monday passed an increase in pensions and benefits by 3.1 per cent in April, despite a cost-of living crisis involving higher energy bills, a national insurance hike scheduled for the same month, and inflation at 4.8 per cent.

The Universal Credit rise of just £10.07 a month and the state pension increase of only £5.55 a week were voted in by 298 MPs, 296 of whom are Conservative.

Cancelling out energy bills support

Labour MPs were whipped to abstain, with only 13 Labour MPs and one Tory, Peter Bottomley, defying the whip to fight the below-inflation increase, The Mirror has reported.

The 3.1 per cent rise for benefits and pensions, which will only rise in relation to what inflation was last autumn, comes on top of the decision to suspend the pensions triple lock, which would have increased state pension by over eight per cent.

This means the state pension will be £185.15 a week from April, but, according to Labour, a couple receiving it would be £355 worse off because of the higher inflation hike – meaning it will cancel out the £350 energy bills help.

Labour MP Beth Winter said: “These are families, pensioners and households who cannot afford to have their benefits cut again.

“But that is what is being proposed today, a three per cent increase where costs are going up by five, six or seven per cent, means that the orders today is a proposal to increase the level of poverty in this country.

“That is why I am backing… calling for a larger increase of six per cent.

“That is why to conclude, this government must withdraw this order and come back urgently with a new offer that ensures social security recipients are not scapegoated and exploited any longer as they have been over the last 10 years by this Conservative government.”

Tories defend poor increase by comparing it to 2010 payments

But the government defended its decision to increase state pension by three per cent, saying pensioners receiving the basic rate will be better off by £2,300 compared to the time when the Tories came to power in 2010.

David Rutley, work and pensions minister, told Parliament: “The state pension is a foundation of support for older people. With this order the basic state pension will rise to £149.26 a week for a single person.

“This means that a full yearly basic state pension will increase by £2,300 a year higher in cash terms than in April 2010.”

Full list of MPs who voted for the real-terms benefits and pensions cut

Bim Afolami – Conservative

Adam Afriyie – Conservative

Nickie Aiken – Conservative

Peter Aldous – Conservative

Lucy Allan – Conservative

Lee Anderson – Conservative

Stuart Anderson – Conservative

Stuart Andrew – Conservative

Caroline Ansell – Conservative

Edward Argar – Conservative

Sarah Atherton – Conservative

Victoria Atkins – Conservative

Gareth Bacon – Conservative

Richard Bacon – Conservative

Shaun Bailey – Conservative

Siobhan Baillie – Conservative

Duncan Baker – Conservative

Steven Baker – Conservative

Harriett Baldwin – Conservative

John Baron – Conservative

Simon Baynes – Conservative

Aaron Bell – Conservative

Scott Benton – Conservative

Paul Beresford – Conservative

Jake Berry – Conservative

Saqib Bhatti – Conservative

Bob Blackman – Conservative

Crispin Blunt – Conservative

Peter Bone – Conservative

Andrew Bowie – Conservative

Karen Bradley – Conservative

Graham Brady – Conservative

Suella Braverman – Conservative

Jack Brereton – Conservative

Andrew Bridgen – Conservative

Steve Brine – Conservative

Paul Bristow – Conservative

Anthony Browne – Conservative

Fiona Bruce – Conservative

Felicity Buchan – Conservative

Robert Buckland – Conservative

Alex Burghart – Conservative

Conor Burns – Conservative

Rob Butler – Conservative

Alun Cairns – Conservative

Andy Carter – Conservative

James Cartlidge – Conservative

Bill Cash – Conservative

Miriam Cates – Conservative

Maria Caulfield – Conservative

Alex Chalk – Conservative

Rehman Chishti – Conservative

Jo Churchill – Conservative

Greg Clark – Conservative

Theo Clarke – Conservative

Simon Clarke – Conservative

Brendan Clarke-Smith – Conservative

Chris Clarkson – Conservative

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown – Conservative

Therese Coffey – Conservative

Elliot Colburn – Conservative

Damian Collins – Conservative

Alberto Costa – Conservative

Claire Coutinho – Conservative

Virginia Crosbie – Conservative

Tracey Crouch – Conservative

James Daly – Conservative

Mims Davies – Conservative

Gareth Davies – Conservative

David Davies – Conservative

James Davies – Conservative

Philip Davies – Conservative

Dehenna Davison – Conservative

Sarah Dines – Conservative

Jonathan Djanogly – Conservative

Michelle Donelan – Conservative

Steve Double – Conservative

Oliver Dowden – Conservative

Jackie Doyle-Price – Conservative

Richard Drax – Conservative

Flick Drummond – Conservative

James Duddridge – Conservative

David Duguid – Conservative

Philip Dunne – Conservative

Mark Eastwood – Conservative

Ruth Edwards – Conservative

Michael Ellis – Conservative

Natalie Elphicke – Conservative

George Eustice – Conservative

Luke Evans – Conservative

Ben Everitt – Conservative

Michael Fabricant – Conservative

Laura Farris – Conservative

Simon Fell – Conservative

Anna Firth – Conservative

Mark Fletcher – Conservative

Katherine Fletcher – Conservative

Nicholas Fletcher – Conservative

Vicky Ford – Conservative

Kevin Foster – Conservative

Mark Francois – Conservative

Lucy Frazer – Conservative

Mike Freer – Conservative

Louie French – Conservative

Richard Fuller – Conservative

Roger Gale – Conservative

Nick Gibb – Conservative

Peter Gibson – Conservative

Jo Gideon – Conservative

John Glen – Conservative

Robert Goodwill – Conservative

Richard Graham – Conservative

Helen Grant – Conservative

James Gray – Conservative

Chris Grayling – Conservative

Chris Green – Conservative

Damian Green – Conservative

Andrew Griffith – Conservative

Kate Griffiths – Conservative

James Grundy – Conservative

Robert Halfon – Conservative

Luke Hall – Conservative

Stephen Hammond – Conservative

Matthew Hancock – Conservative

Mark Harper – Conservative

Rebecca Harris – Conservative

Trudy Harrison – Conservative

Sally-Ann Hart – Conservative

Simon Hart – Conservative

Oliver Heald – Conservative

James Heappey – Conservative

Chris Heaton-Harris – Conservative

Gordon Henderson – Conservative

Antony Higginbotham – Conservative

Damian Hinds – Conservative

Simon Hoare – Conservative

Richard Holden – Conservative

Kevin Hollinrake – Conservative

Philip Hollobone – Conservative

John Howell – Conservative

Paul Howell – Conservative

Nigel Huddleston – Conservative

Neil Hudson – Conservative

Eddie Hughes – Conservative

Jane Hunt – Conservative

Tom Hunt – Conservative

Jeremy Hunt – Conservative

Ranil Jayawardena – Conservative

Bernard Jenkin – Conservative

Mark Jenkinson – Conservative

Robert Jenrick – Conservative

Dr Caroline Johnson – Conservative

David Johnston – Conservative

Andrew Jones – Conservative

Fay Jones – Conservative

Marcus Jones – Conservative

David Jones – Conservative

Simon Jupp – Conservative

Daniel Kawczynski – Conservative

Alicia Kearns – Conservative

Gillian Keegan – Conservative

Greg Knight – Conservative

Danny Kruger – Conservative

John Lamont – Conservative

Andrea Leadsom – Conservative

Edward Leigh – Conservative

Ian Levy – Conservative

Andrew Lewer – Conservative

Ian Liddell-Grainger – Conservative

Chris Loder – Conservative

Mark Logan – Conservative

Marco Longhi – Conservative

Julia Lopez – Conservative

Jack Lopresti – Conservative

Jonathan Lord – Conservative

Tim Loughton – Conservative

Craig Mackinlay – Conservative

Cherilyn Mackrory – Conservative

Rachel Maclean – Conservative

Alan Mak – Conservative

Kit Malthouse – Conservative

Anthony Mangnall – Conservative

Scott Mann – Conservative

Jerome Mayhew – Conservative

Paul Maynard – Conservative

Jason McCartney – Conservative

Karl McCartney – Conservative

Esther McVey – Conservative

Mark Menzies – Conservative

Johnny Mercer – Conservative

Huw Merriman – Conservative

Stephen Metcalfe – Conservative

Robin Millar – Conservative

Maria Miller – Conservative

Amanda Milling – Conservative

Nigel Mills – Conservative

Andrew Mitchell – Conservative

Gagan Mohindra – Conservative

Damien Moore – Conservative

Robbie Moore – Conservative

Penny Mordaunt – Conservative

James Morris – Conservative

David Morris – Conservative

Joy Morrissey – Conservative

Jill Mortimer – Conservative

Wendy Morton – Conservative

Kieran Mullan – Conservative

Holly Mumby-Croft – Conservative

David Mundell – Conservative

Sheryll Murray – Conservative

Andrew Murrison – Conservative

Lia Nici – Conservative

Caroline Nokes – Conservative

Neil O’Brien – Conservative

Matthew Offord – Conservative

Guy Opperman – Conservative

Neil Parish – Conservative

Mark Pawsey – Conservative

Mike Penning – Conservative

John Penrose – Conservative

Andrew Percy – Conservative

Chris Philp – Conservative

Christopher Pincher – Conservative

Daniel Poulter – Conservative

Rebecca Pow – Conservative

Victoria Prentis – Conservative

Tom Pursglove – Conservative

Will Quince – Conservative

Tom Randall – Conservative

John Redwood – Conservative

Jacob Rees-Mogg – Conservative

Angela Richardson – Conservative

Laurence Robertson – Conservative

Mary Robinson – Conservative

Andrew Rosindell – Conservative

Douglas Ross – Conservative

Lee Rowley – Conservative

Dean Russell – Conservative

David Rutley – Conservative

Gary Sambrook – Conservative

Selaine Saxby – Conservative

Paul Scully – Conservative

Bob Seely – Conservative

Andrew Selous – Conservative

Alok Sharma – Conservative

Alec Shelbrooke – Conservative

David Simmonds – Conservative

Chris Skidmore – Conservative

Henry Smith – Conservative

Royston Smith – Conservative

Julian Smith – Conservative

Chloe Smith – Conservative

Greg Smith – Conservative

Amanda Solloway – Conservative

Mark Spencer – Conservative

Ben Spencer – Conservative

Alexander Stafford – Conservative

Andrew Stephenson – Conservative

Jane Stevenson – Conservative

John Stevenson – Conservative

Bob Stewart – Conservative

Iain Stewart – Conservative

Mel Stride – Conservative

Graham Stuart – Conservative

Julian Sturdy – Conservative

James Sunderland – Conservative

Desmond Swayne – Conservative

Robert Syms – Conservative

Derek Thomas – Conservative

Maggie Throup – Conservative

Edward Timpson – Conservative

Kelly Tolhurst – Conservative

Michael Tomlinson – Conservative

Justin Tomlinson – Conservative

Craig Tracey – Conservative

Anne-Marie Trevelyan – Conservative

Thomas Tugendhat – Conservative

Shailesh Vara – Conservative

Martin Vickers – Conservative

Matt Vickers – Conservative

Theresa Villiers – Conservative

Robin Walker – Conservative

Jamie Wallis – Conservative

Matt Warman – Conservative

Giles Watling – Conservative

Suzanne Webb – Conservative

Helen Whately – Conservative

Heather Wheeler – Conservative

Craig Whittaker – Conservative

John Whittingdale – Conservative

Bill Wiggin – Conservative

James Wild – Conservative

Craig Williams – Conservative

Gavin Williamson – Conservative

Mike Wood – Conservative

Jacob Young – Conservative

Julian Lewis – Independent

Rob Roberts – Independent

Andra Maciuca

Andra is a multilingual, award-winning NQJ senior journalist and the UK’s first Romanian representing co-nationals in Britain and reporting on EU citizens for national news. She is interested in UK, EU and Eastern European affairs, EU citizens in the UK, British citizens in the EU, environmental reporting, ethical consumerism and corporate social responsibility. She has contributed articles to VICE, Ethical Consumer and The New European and likes writing poetry, singing, songwriting and playing instruments. She studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield and has a Masters in International Business and Management from the University of Manchester. Follow her on: