Does anyone out there believe a word the Chancellor says these days?
Rachel Reeves has pledged to back state pension triple lock. Time to worry (Image: Getty)
Because if they do, I’d like their bank details. Why? Because I’m a Nigerian prince with access to millions of dollars and need help unlocking it. Only the truly gullible fall for that old scam. Just as only the truly gullible would believe a word from Rachel Reeves.
This is a chancellor who repeatedly swore she would only hike three taxes totalling £8.5billion if Labour won last year’s election, on non-doms, private schools and oil companies. In just 18 months, she’s hit tens of millions of Britons for £66billion and rising. This includes income tax and National Insurance, two manifesto red lines.
Nothing Reeves says about her recent Budget can be trusted, from insisting she wasn’t behind all of those leaks to claiming the economy is in a far worse state than it actually is.
She was at it again yesterday, announcing an investigation into Treasury leaks that everybody knows will find nobody guilty.
While doing that, she made another pledge. This was treated as good news for state pensioners, but given her record, they shouldn’t cash the cheque just yet.
Yesterday, Reeves ruled out scrapping the hugely popular state pension triple lock in this Parliament. Addressing the Treasury Committee, she confirmed the policy will remain until at least 2030. That’s great news for pensioners. If it’s true.
Frankly, I wouldn’t trust any politician who says the triple lock is safe with them. Most would love to be rid of it but don’t want the blame.
Occasionally, a lone MP pops their head up, calls it unaffordable, then ducks before the shrapnel flies.
The triple lock increases the state pension each year by earnings, inflation or 2.5%, whichever is highest. It’s done a fantastic job of reducing pensioner poverty since 2011, but it doesn’t come cheap.
The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates the annual cost could hit £15.5billion by 2030, three times its original estimate. The Treasury would be thrilled to scrap it.
Pensioners would be incandescent if it tried. And they’d have some strong arguments in their favour.
The UK state pension is already one of the lowest in Europe, and they’ve contributed to it for decades.
Meanwhile, the Treasury can always find cash to splash cash on trendier causes. Just look at the tens of billions they risk squandering on Ed Miliband’s net zero charge.
Back to Reeves. When Dame Harriett Baldwin asked yesterday if the triple lock would remain, she answered: “Yes.”
Clear enough. Until you remember the countless times she swore she wouldn’t hike taxes during the election.
Or how last October she pledged she wouldn’t be back for a second tax-grabbing Budget? Yesterday, she somehow kept a straight face while blasting others for her own Budget leaks.
Her pledge to protect the triple lock is no more reliable. As ever, it pays to watch what the Chancellor does, not what she says. Pensioners can’t relax just yet. And if you think I’m being too cynical, then I’d really, really like your bank details.
