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Welsh Tory MP warns of ‘long term question marks’ over ‘sustainability’ of pension triple lock

22 Nov 2022 5 minute read
Stephen Crabb by Chris McAndrew (CC BY 3.0).

There are “long term question marks around” the sustainability of the pension triple lock, a Welsh Conservative former Cabinet minister has warned.

Former work and pensions secretary Stephen Crabb urged the Treasury to have a “more honest discussion” on the UK Government’s manifesto promise.

Speaking during the second day of Commons debate on the autumn statement, the Preseli Pembrokeshire MP said: “Triple lock is a very expensive long term policy, it’s played a hugely important role in lifting many pensioners out of poverty… but I just want the Treasury frontbench to bear that in mind, that we do need a more honest discussion about that.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the Government will fulfil its pledge to protect the triple lock, meaning that the state pension will increase in line with inflation.

On NHS spending, Mr Crabb cautioned there were “increasingly large numbers of people” for whom the “very vision and model of the NHS just isn’t working”.

He said: “NHS dentistry is ceasing to operate for a great many families. People are emptying their savings accounts so they can go private to pay for hip and knee replacements that they can’t get on the NHS.

“Now this is under Welsh Labour Government in Wales, but I think some of the same pressures and trends are at work elsewhere in the country as well.

“Yet we continue to find more and more funding for the NHS every year, but it’s a health service that isn’t meeting the needs I believe particularly of working age people.”

‘Dismaying’

Conservative former Cabinet minister Kit Malthouse called on the Government to reconsider its tax plans in the spring, warning that the UK could not “tax our way to prosperity”.

Mr Malthouse told MPs: “We are not going to tax our way to prosperity, we are not going to tax our way out of this debt to GDP problem.

“We need to inject growth into the economy and the only way we will do that is by letting those wealth creators free, by loosening the ties that bind them, by looking at the regulation and indeed the taxation on capital in particular so that people are willing to take risk.

“And one of the most dismaying choices I have to say in the budget has been the increase in capital taxes that are proposed, not least because that is changing the risk-reward ratio, meaning that it is less likely that people are going to go out there and start a business.”

He warned that tax rises may lead to a longer period of inflation as workers ask their bosses for more cash “sparking a wage and price spiral”.

Mark Fletcher, the MP for Bolsover, told the Commons: “I think there is a fair cop that we’ve made some mistakes on economic policy.”

Conservative former Cabinet minister Dr Liam Fox said British exports to Europe were “robust” adding “we do not need a new relationship with the European Union”.

He said: “Despite the fact that there are greater barriers to trade on the European Union side than on the UK side, British exports to Europe are actually managing to be more robust than European exports to the UK.

“So just to be very clear we do not need a new relationship with the European Union, Swiss or otherwise. We do not require freedom of movement, no integration into the European Single Market and no integration of EU law into the UK.”

He added: “Those who talk about a recession made in Downing Street might want to ask themselves how much they are absolving Vladimir Putin for the global inflation that we see today and whether in fact they are actually negating their own duty in terms of being patriotic at this time.”

‘Sound money’

Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said there was a need to “acknowledge the impact that Brexit has had on our labour market”.

She said: “Brexit has also been disastrous for UK trade, rather than opening up opportunities for global trade, businesses have been inundated with red tape

Shadow Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq said: “The Tories have lost all claims to be the party of economic responsibility.

“The Conservatives have broken their own fiscal rules a total of 11 times since they came into government in 2010.

“They’ve spent 12 years weakening the economy and they crushed the markets in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, leaving working people like my constituents, paying the price.”

Sound money has to come before low taxes, Treasury minister James Cartlidge told MPs.

He said: “In the short term, we are taking difficult decisions to make sure that fiscal policy keeps inflation in check, but doing it in a compassionate way that still provides support to the most vulnerable.”

He added: “We are tackling inflation to help all our constituents with the cost of living, while at the same time providing the stability which business needs to be able to invest and grow.

“We want low taxes and sound money, but sound money has to come first.”

Mr Cartlidge said inflation is the “ultimate tax” as he resisted committing to cut the 20p tax rate by 2030.


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Cwm Rhondda
Cwm Rhondda
2 years ago

The UK already has one of the most miserly state pensions in Europe and the Tories want to reduce it further in comparison to our richer EU neighbours? The Tories know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Charles Coombes
Charles Coombes
2 years ago
Reply to  Cwm Rhondda

Well said

Frank
Frank
2 years ago

I’ll tell you what’s very “expensive” too Crabb is the bloody house of lords and the wallies we have in Westminster with their fancy expenses and perks. He needs to look closer to home. Pensioners in Europe are far better off than here. What a thing to say.

Last edited 2 years ago by Frank
I.Humphrys
I.Humphrys
2 years ago

The least we need is being confederated, though not as good as independence. Of course, it won’t be rosy for a while. No foreign entanglements, neutrality, and hard work.

Neil Anderson
Neil Anderson
2 years ago
Reply to  I.Humphrys

A well-planned independence with our own fiat currency could ensure a very good beginning to the Cymrian State. The hard work starts before independence – now, through YesCymru et al. We have much to gain, obviously without foreign entanglements and with neutrality as you say.

Y Tywysog Lloegr a Moscow
Y Tywysog Lloegr a Moscow
2 years ago

Well if the Tories pee off the pensioners, they will never be electable again. This is their core. Statistically it is estimated that cohort votes 75% Tory.
But who am I to stop them from shooting themselves in the foot?
Unless they are TRYING to get unelected in order to avoid having to try and clean up the chaos they have wrought

Windy
Windy
2 years ago

If the triple lock has lifted a lot of pensioners out of poverty then he is happy to do away with it and return those pensioner back into poverty, I cannot believe any man in his right mind would say such a thing and commit political suicide, therefore I draw the conclusion that he must be completely and utterly out of his mind

Charles Coombes
Charles Coombes
2 years ago

1. Never trust a tory
2. The triple lock is needed to bribe pensioners into remaining tory voters.

Argol fawr!
Argol fawr!
2 years ago

Tory support in the uk is propped up by pensioners because of the triple lock.. Not the brightest re. self preservation is he. Carry on Crabb.

Valerie Matthews
Valerie Matthews
2 years ago

But the huge ‘retirement’ payouts to MPs however short a time they have been in Parliament is ok is it? Not to mention getting us to pay for these millionaire’s ‘Christmas Jollies!’ And don’t get me started on the fact that the ‘Lords’ all unelected, get £325 a DAY for just showing up for a nap!

hdavies15
hdavies15
2 years ago

But they are an elite, Valerie. You must respect their sense of superiority and entitlement. After all that’s why most of them bother.

Neil Anderson
Neil Anderson
2 years ago

If the Treasury were to have a “more honest discussion” about anything, they could begin by citing their 2014 report which said we can just ‘print’ (ie. create credit) money to meet needs. Or cite J M Keynes in 1942 “Anything we can do, we can afford”. Or confess that Covid and recent World Wars were paid for by ‘printing’ money – quantitative easing – under various guises. Stephen Crabb would be well-advised to read Stephanie Kelton’s The Deficit Myth and Professor Richard Murphy’s excellent blog taxresearch.org.uk. But don’t tell the Labour Party! They would only spend it on nurses’… Read more »

Neil Anderson
Neil Anderson
2 years ago
Reply to  Neil Anderson

Ooops. The 2014 report was by the Bank of England. Compare and contrast Tory Ministers (or Labour) refusing to accept Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)…

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