Labour will this week try to force a Commons vote on saving free TV licences for over-75s.
MPs will hold a three-hour debate aimed at piling pressure on Theresa May to honour an election pledge to preserve the lifeline.
Labour wants shame the Prime Minister by highlighting the looming Tory betrayal which could see pensioners being stripped of the £154.50-a-year benefit.
Deputy Leader Tom Watson will spearhead the battle by opening the three-hour debate shortly after Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament.
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He said tonight: “The Tories made a manifesto commitment in 2017 that TV licences would stay free for over-75s.
“This vote is about asking the Government whether they will keep their promise or betray the confidence and trust of older people.”
Tomorrow’s parliamentary showdown could force Conservative MPs to choose whether they standby their manifesto commitment or whether they support placing free licences in jeopardy, potentially leading to them being scrapped.
Currently all households with someone aged 75 or over are entitled to a free licence.
The Conservatives pledged at the 2017 election to maintain the benefit for the length of this Parliament, due to run until 2022.
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But OAPs face being stripped of the perk after then Chancellor George Osborne stitched up a deal in 2015 for the corporation to take on the burden of funding the £745-million-a-year lifeline from June 2020.
Options put forward by the corporation include scrapping them altogether, replacing them with a 50% concession for all over-75s, lifting the threshold for eligibility to 77 or 80, or means-testing so those who get pension credits are able to claim the benefit.
A 12-week consultation closed in February and a decision is expected by June.
The Mirror is campaigning to save the licences, with more than 18,000 readers backing the battle by completing coupons in the paper.
Royle Family actor Ricky Tomlinson and former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown have supported the fight.
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Nearly 115,000 people have signed Age UK’s Switched Off petition calling for the licences to be preserved and the Government to take back responsibility for funding the perk.
Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams said: “Every Opposition party is committed to keeping the free TV licence for over-75s so this week the Government stands entirely alone.
“MPs on all sides will have been struck, I am sure, by the evidence Age UK and others have produced showing just how reliant many older people are on their TV, especially the lonely, chronically sick and disabled, and how hard it would be for them if they were faced with another big annual bill.
“It is clear that if this is what happens, significant numbers will decide they simply can’t afford to watch TV any more and will go without one of the few pleasures they have.
“If it’s that or spend less on heating or food you can see they will have no real choice and that seems terribly sad.
“We call on the Government to look again at what we now know will be the impact of their decision on the oldest people in our society and take back from the BBC the responsibility for funding the free TV licence for over-75s.
“This is so obviously the right and decent thing for any Government to do.”
National Pensioners’ Convention general secretary Jan Shortt said: “This debate is just what we need in order to give Parliament an opportunity to decide whether or not to keep the TV licences for the over-75s.
“Only the Conservative Party seems willing to attack some of our oldest and most vulnerable people in this way by forcing the BBC to scrap the concession.
“They promised to retain the TV licences in their 2017 manifesto but have now just dropped it. I hope MPs will unite to force the Government to think again.”
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Mrs May was tackled about the scandal last week during her weekly Commons grilling.
Labour backbencher Jim Cunningham told MPs: “During the general election the Prime Minister gave a manifesto commitment to retain free TV licences and bus passes.
“Does she still stand by them?”
The slippery PM shamefully tried to shift blame onto the BBC claiming: “We do stand by the commitments we made.
“Of course we are changing the arrangements for the TV licences, that is going to the BBC.
“But there is no reason why the BBC, with the money available to it, is not able to continue that.”
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Mrs May is under mounting pressure over the decision to force the corporation to take over the responsibility.
The Mirror revealed last month how the Tories’ confidence-and-supply partners backed the lifeline.
The Government relies on the Democratic Unionist Party’s 10 MPs for its majority – and the demand comes just weeks before the two-year pact between the hardline Northern Ireland party and the Conservatives is due for renewal.
The DUP could make preserving the perk a key condition in any new deal with the Tories.
Party frontbencher Emma Little-Pengelly said: “We believe action must be taken now to prevent the removal of this concession and we strongly urge the Government to step in and ensure this happens.”
Asked by MPs in September to guarantee licences will remain free, BBC director-general Lord Hall said: “I can’t give you a guarantee it will continue.
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“The concession, as formulated, comes to an end in June 2020.
“We have got to decide what will replace it.”
