A voter backlash at the decision to scrap the universal winter fuel allowance for pensioners has sparked a Cabinet split with calls for Rachel Reeves to rethink the policy.

The Chancellor is understood not to be considering a rethink despite growing Labour opposition to the plan to means-test the benefit in a bid to save £1.4bn this year.

The tensions have reached the Cabinet, i understands, with at least one minister privately calling for a rethink after a 10 per cent rise in the energy price cap this winter was announced on Friday.

But Reeves is not currently considering a full U-turn or tapering the cut-off point for the winter fuel allowance to offset the cliff-edge effect for those just above the qualifying threshold under the current plans.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer prepares to warn voters on Tuesday that because of Labour’s economic inheritance from the Conservatives, “things will get worse before they get better”.

The Chancellor is also understood to have seen internal polling which shows broad support among voters in favour of means-testing the winter fuel allowance, apart from the oldest voters.

While some public opinion polls have suggested voters are against Reeves’s decision, there is a belief in Labour that their responses depend on how the question is asked, a phenomenon highlighted by Robert Colvile, the author of the Tories’ 2019 election manifesto, last week

However, Labour MPs said their postbags were filling up with “frightened” voters’ concerns and that the decision was coming up on the doorstep.

There are particular concerns about older voters in dozens of so-called “Red Wall” seats the party won back from the Conservatives in the general election.

One minister highlighted the “level of anger” on Labour MPs’ Facebook pages at the winter fuel cut, “especially in the Red Wall” where there are more older voters, adding that: “Rachel is going to have to show some flexibility on it”.

They also urged the Chancellor not to raise fuel duty in her October Budget, although Reeves recently hinted in an interview that she could maintain the 13-year freeze on the tax.

The minister said that “we really have to avoid hitting ordinary people on the cost of living” as “people are going to really struggle this winter”.

A Labour MP in a Red Wall seat in the North of England said that they would not rebel against the Government over the decision to cut the winter fuel payment but said that “there is a lot of bad feeling in the party about the decision”.

“I think they may be forced to water it down if MPs start making moves when we’re back [from recess],” they said.

The MP added: “It’s come up a lot in my inboxes and constituents have brought it up in person to me. I understand the concern, but I think a lot of people need to be reassured about the details.”

A second Labour MP said colleagues’ postbags were filling up with “a lot of very frightened people telling of how hard it was last year but will be harder this” and that those concerned will be trying to get a vote in the Commons.

“Lots of MPs want Labour to do the right thing and protect pensioners.”

Labour former work and pensions secretary Alan Johnson meanwhile said the means test for the winter fuel payment should be tapered so that support is phased out depending on the strength of people’s finances, rather than cut off abruptly at a sin