A 99-year-old war veteran who says she’s had £60k wiped off her state pension made a final plea to Keir Starmer to meet with her after travelling thousands of miles to lobby the government.

Anne Puckridge, who will turn 100 this month, is among almost half a million retired Britons living overseas whose state pensions don’t rise with inflation.

Their weekly payments were frozen on the day they moved abroad, meaning many are missing out on thousands of pounds a year compared with people who remained in the country.

The policy, which has been in place for decades, means they get less than half the amount of those living in the UK. Some of these pensioners live in poverty while many others have been left struggling to cover their costs, according to reports.

Ms Puckridge lived and worked in the UK until she was 76, and believes she has lost out on an estimated £60,000 since moving to Canada in 2001. She’s now on a mission to see the policy changed.

This week, she travelled all the way from Calgary, Canada to Westminster as she calls on Number 10 to take action.

But despite her request to discuss the topic with the Prime Minister, Sir Keir’s spokesman said that he was unable to meet Ms Puckridge due to “pressures on his diary”, The Telegraph

However, she was due to meet with the pensions minister Emma Reynolds this afternoon, before speaking with MPs in a drop-in session in Parliament in the evening.

But Ms Puckridge says she was “disappointed” not to meet with the Labour leader, and is holding out hope for him finding time to speak with her.

In a last-ditch plea to the Prime minister while speaking with Express Political Editor Martyn Brown, she said: “I am not happy that Keir Starmer won’t meet me.

“I am here for a few more days – I will be outside the gates of Downing Street on Wednesday – I will meet him anytime. This unfair policy must end.”

Labour promised to uprate pensions for British expats living overseas in its 2019 general election manifesto but is yet to do so.

British state pensions became payable anywhere in the world in 1955 – but were not inflation-linked.

Reciprocal arrangements to uprate pension payments have only been agreed with certain countries in the decades that have followed, and aren’t in place for some 150 nations including Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

Campaigners argue that it would cost around £300 million over five years to change the policy, and just £50 million in the first year as it would start from the day a deal was signed, rather than being backdated.

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The basic state pension is currently worth £169.50 per week and End Frozen Pensions campaigners say it means the 40% of all British pensioners living outside the UK who are hit by the policy are missing out on £3,085.16 a year if they retired in 2013.

The figure could be as much as £7,042.36 a year if they retired in 1983, the group claims.

The Cabinet Office has been approached for comment. In a previous statement on the issue, a Government spokesperson said: “We understand that people move abroad for many reasons, and we provide clear information on gov.uk about how this can impact their finances in retirement.

“The International Pension Centre is a source of advice for people who are already retired.

“The Government’s policy on the uprating of the UK State Pension for recipients living overseas is a longstanding one of more than 70 years and we continue to uprate state pensions overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so.”