Fears have been raised over how the Tories plan to fill a ‘£46 billion ‘pension black hole’ with plans to abolish National Insurance after Rishi Sunak failed to rule out raising the retirement age.
Mr Sunak was challenged about the proposal put forward by former Tory Brexit minister Lord Frost during firy exhanges with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in Prime Minister’s questions (PMQs).
Sir Keir said: “One of his peers, Lord Frost—yes, him again—does know [how he will solve the pension black hold problem]. He says that to solve the problem of the Tories’ spending plans, the state pension age should be raised to 75. Understandably, that will cause some alarm, so will the Prime Minister rule out forcing people to delay their retirement by years and years in order to fulfil his £46 billion black hole?”
He asked the Prime Minister if he would rule out the idea.
However, Mr Sunak avoided answering the question instead blasting Sir Keir’s own past issues around pensions.
He said: “I have answered this multiple times, but I am happy to say it again: the Conservative party is the party that has delivered and protected the triple lock. Ultimately, he is not worried about any of this, because as we all remember, he has his very own personal pension plan. Indeed, it comes with its very own special law: it was called the Pensions Increase (Pension Scheme for Keir Starmer QC) Regulations. It is literally one law for him and another one for everyone else.”
The failure to rule out a dramatic rise in the pension age was latched on to by Labour.
Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General,
said: “Rishi Sunak has again failed to categorically rule out raising the retirement age to 75 to pay for his reckless and unfunded Liz Truss style £46 billion blackhole.
“It has been 56 days since days of silence since the Prime Minister first made this pledge, with pensioners and those approaching retirement age left in the dark about how he will pay for this tax pledge and how the state pension will be changed.
“The Prime Minister might think he can squat in 10 Downing Street and dodge these questions forever, but Labour won’t stand by and let Rishi Sunak and the Tories inflict yet more hardship on pensioners because of his weakness and desperation.”
