Rachel Reeves has been accused of having her “snout in the trough” after it was revealed she had claimed £3,700 towards the cost of heating her second home over the course of the last five years.

Carole Malone railed against the Labour Chancellor for claiming the cash while plotting to bar most pensioners from claiming the £300 annual winter heating payment – declaring: “It makes me boil with rage”.

Earlier this week, MPs voted through Government plans which will mean the payout will be means-tested, in effect ruling out anyone who is not in receipt of benefits – roughly 10 million people.

Speaking to GB News, Ms Malone said: “I wanted to talk about Rachel Reeves today trying to justify the fact that she gets £3,700, has claimed that in the last five years, for her heating bills at her second home.

“She’s actually just saying that, you know, MPs have to be in when she was never you have to be in London.

“And I’m thinking, so you are on £ 158,000, your husband is very well-paid, so there’s a household that’s bringing in nearly £300,000, and she’s talking about how she needed this heating money.

“Pensioners are on 10 and a half grand a year and yet we have our Chancellor who’s going to take the money away from society’s most vulnerable, and yet her and all the other cabinet members have got the snouts in the trough, and they’re taking it for their heating bills.

“And it makes me boil with rage that they can’t see the hypocrisy of this. They can’t see the cruelty of this.”

Ms Reeves said: “I recognise that I earn more than average families in Britain, but I’m also determined in this position to protect the most vulnerable, which is why the winter fuel payment will continue to be paid to pensioners on pension credit.

She added: “Being a constituency MP means that you have to have a house in London as well as, of course, living in the constituency, and that’s the same for all MPs.

“Those are long standing rules. I am determined to ensure that the poorest pensioners are protected and will still get winter fuel payments, and indeed, to ensure that pension incomes continue to increase with the triple lock

Simon Francis, of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “As MPs warm themselves at public expense, the reality for pensioners will be very different this winter.

“If Labour MPs are so keen to save money for the Treasury, maybe they could look closer to home for savings rather than taking from pensioners.”

In 2021-22, 11 Cabinet ministers claimed a total of £7,187 for their gas and electricity bills. This amount surged to £12,620 during the first three quarters of the following year.

The claims are for expenses which MPs, who now earn £91,346 annually, are eligible to receive due to the necessity of working from two locations if their constituency is outside London.

MPs are permitted to claim reimbursement for the costs associated with maintaining a property near Westminster, which includes expenses like council tax and utilities.