'You've got to be responsible': Business secretary refuses to rule out scrapping travel passes for pensioners
10 September 2024, 10:08 | Updated: 10 September 2024, 10:27
Watch Again: Nick Ferrari is joined by Business & Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds | 10/09/24
Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has refused to rule out scrapping free travel passes for pensioners, saying a 'responsible' government means making decisions 'you don't want to make'.
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When asked by LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast to confirm that the National Bus Pass and London Freedom Pass would remain in place after Transport Minister Lord Hendy refused to do so, Mr Reynolds said: "There are no plans to change any of that, but of course we have a budget coming up.
"I'm sure the answer that he gave was that you've got to wait to the budget for all of those kinds of decisions," he added, defending Lord Hendy.
"But I do acknowledge we've had to make, today's an example of that, decisions which we didn't want to have to make, but they're a reality."
Read more: State pension set to rise by over £400 in April after latest wages data released
The Business and Trade Secretary blamed the previous government for "overspending" and said the current leadership now has to make choices they "didn't want to have to make."
Pressed again by Nick to guarantee that travel passes for pensioners will not be cut, Mr Reynolds asked people not to speculate before the budget is released.
He also defended Labour making a commitment to the pension triple lock before the budget is released, saying: "The triple lock is the kind of thing you specifically put in your manifesto because it's the foundation of the state pension.
"I think that is reasonable. I think the kind of promises that we have made on key issues like that are absolutely clear."
Lord Hendy caused alarm on Monday when he dodged making a firm commitment to the scheme, only saying "we would all hope that it continues into the future".
Now, the government has said the transport minister "misspoke".
The minister also said it is not “fair” to suggest Chancellor Rachel Reeves is behaving like the “Grinch” over the cut to the winter fuel allowance.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds was asked about remarks made by RMT general secretary Mick Lynch at the TUC Congress, where he said that Labour would be likened to the Grinch – a term used against him during a strike by railway workers last year – over the policy.
“I don’t think that that is fair in any way,” he told LBC.
“What we have been able to do is first of all be serious about decisions that the previous government has sat on… it’s nothing like the kind of austerity that we saw under George Osborne.
“It is a recognition that where the previous government has made commitments that it can’t honour, you’ve got to be responsible within there.”
No10 has insisted they are "committed to maintaining" free bus passes.
A government spokesperson added: "Suggestions we will scrap it are rubbish. We are absolutely committed to maintaining them."
