Charles Kennedy

Liberal Democrats | Ross Skye & Lochaber

Kennedy At PMQs: Prime Minister Indicates He May Not Legislate On Pension Reform

At Prime Minister’s Questions Charles Kennedy challenged the Prime Minister to “give the House this commitment today- that he will legislate following Lord Turner’s proposals, and that he as Prime Minister will see those reforms through?” The Prime Minister would not answer this direct question.

Mr Kennedy went on to press the Prime Minister to make a commitment to address “the scandalous in built discrimination against women in the current operation of the benefit of the state pension system.” The Prime Minister would not make this commitment.

Full text of exchange follows

Charles Kennedy: Mr Speaker, given that there is undoubtedly broad agreement with Lord Turner that the present system of means testing, muddled and inadequate state pensions cannot be maintained, if the Chancellor is not to exercise a veto on the direction in which Lord Turner wants to go, can the Prime Minister give the House this commitment today- that he will legislate following Lord Turner’s proposals, and that he as Prime Minister will see those reforms through?

Prime Minister: As my Right Honourable friend has already said, we will publish our response to the Turner proposals next year, and I’ve got no doubts at all we will end up with the long term framework for pensions to have at it’s start, a decent, at it’s basis rather a decent basic state pension, and also a much simplified way for people to save. However I have to say to the Right Honourable gentleman as I said to the leader of the opposition, the fact is as Lord Turner himself acknowledges, without Pension Credit we could never have lifted pensioners out of poverty. Now long term, we need the type of framework that I have said, but it has to be one that is affordable. And that is, well I’m well aware that the Liberal Democrats don’t always put that right at the forefront of their concerns. But actually, for any party that wants to be in government has got to take account of that.

Charles Kennedy: Well Mr Speaker I think the Chancellor will be the most interested person in the House that the Prime Minister didn’t give a commitment to see pension reform through while he was Prime Minister in answer to a direct question. But can he at least give the House this commitment, that another concern we all share, that pension reform, as and when it comes must, must for once and for all end the scandalous in built discrimination against women in the current operation of the benefit of the state pension system? Will he give us that commitment and make it a top priority?

Prime Minister: Again the issue to do with women who are not properly credited in so that they can’t get the full state pension, yes of course that’s an issue which Lord Turner addresses and we’ve got to address in our response to his report. I have to say too, to the Right Honourable gentleman again, that whatever proposals any party come up with, have to be properly costed and affordable. And for example, I’ve looked at the Lib Dem pensions policy. It is true that in terms of the commitments it makes everyone would cheer, then we come to how they would pay for it, they say they want to shift public spending priorities. Now, I don’t know what that means, I don’t know what that means, and at least that is one thing we have in common.