Pension triple lock needs to be scrapped, Lord Clarke tells Tom Swarbrick
18 November 2022, 18:59 | Updated: 18 November 2022, 20:28
Lord Ken Clarke says he would have been tougher than Mr Hunt
After the Chancellor announced pensions are to rise with inflation, Lord Ken Clarke, tells Tom Swarbrick the triple lock really needs to be gotten 'rid of'.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Ken Clarke weighed in on the Autumn Statement delivered by yesterday Jeremy Hunt, declaring that it had "saved us from another financial crash".
The type of crash he suggests would have been a result of the "daft budget" presented by the Chancellor's predecessor.
Tom Swarbrick jumped in saying: "Well, the bar was pretty low then Ken if the bar was 'don't crash the thing'."
The House of Lords member said the financial statement was "bound to be unpopular" and he hopes people will realise that the choices made by Mr Hunt "had to" be made and "respect him for it".
This was when Tom presented the important question: "Clearly working people are going to be hit very hard by a combination of rising taxes and rising costs of living, including energy bills.
"And yet the Chancellor found eleven billion pounds to increase - by ten per cent - the state pension given to ninety-seven per cent of pensioners, a quarter of whom are living in millionaire households. Is that fair?"
"Well you put it very strongly" came the Lord's reply, "personally I would have been a bit tougher than him".
Lord Clarke went on: "We're bound to have a hard time because the economy is in crisis but I would have gotten rid of the triple lock, I think it needs to be got rid of sooner or later anyway."
The long-lasting impacts of the Autumn statement included higher taxes and impending spending cuts.
"The small state low tax country" is over now, he said: "We're going to have to get used to higher taxes than we used to have, even in good times."
Responding to the financial benefit the statement lends to pensioners, the Ex-Chancellor said: "I think the average pensioner, in modern times, is more secure than the average person in work with a family."
"This would have been a great opportunity to get rid of it and go back to making it adjustable every year according to what we can afford."
