Labour warning of ‘pension black hole’ after Rishi Sunak fails to rule out elevating retirement age to 75 | EUROtoday

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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 didn’t rule out elevating the retirement age.

Mr Sunak was challenged in regards to the proposal put ahead by former Tory Brexit minister Lord Frost throughout firy exhanges with Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer in Prime Minister’s questions (PMQs).

Sir Keir mentioned: “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 requested the Prime Minister if he would rule out the concept.

However, Mr Sunak averted answering the query as an alternative blasting Sir Keir’s personal previous points round pensions.

He mentioned: “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 within the pension age was latched on to by Labour.

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General,

mentioned: “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 because the Prime Minister first made this pledge, with pensioners and people approaching retirement age left at the hours of darkness about how he can pay for this tax pledge and the way the state pension shall be modified.

“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.”