Scottish Labour challenged by SNP on pensions triple lock

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has called on Scottish Labour to reveal whether it intends to scrap the pensions triple lock.

In 2017, the Labour Party issued a pensioners’ pledge card, promising to extend the triple lock until 2025, as well as committing to keeping free bus passes and the winter fuel allowance.

The policy means pensions rise by the highest of inflation, wage growth or 2.5%, but Labour has recently been unwilling to commit to it.

Mr Flynn, MP for Aberdeen South, warned pensioners were “being hammered by the Westminster cost-of-living crisis – with energy and food bills soaring in Brexit Britain”.

He challenged Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to “come clean over whether the Labour Party is secretly planning to scrap the triple lock and impose real-terms cuts to Scottish pensions”.

A commitment to the policy was urged ahead of the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

In the letter to Mr Sarwar, Mr Flynn wrote: “Westminster is threatening to scrap the state pension triple lock. That much is crystal clear after the events of the last week.

“Sadly, this threat isn’t just coming from the current Tory government, it is equally coming from your London bosses in Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

“As you may know, last Wednesday I questioned the Prime Minister on his party’s commitment to maintaining the state pension triple lock beyond the next general election. He blatantly and deliberately refused to give that guarantee.

“What’s worse though, the Labour Party leadership – including Sir Keir Starmer – have also stubbornly refused to commit to the future of the triple lock.

“Instead of giving clear answers, Tory and Labour politicians have been dodging the issue all week.

“Those non-answers and that cowardly lack of clarity and commitment is causing deep and real concern for millions of pensioners.

“Scottish pensioners are already being hammered by the Westminster cost-of-living crisis – with energy and food bills soaring in Brexit Britain.

“Pensioners on fixed incomes need certainty in their finances, but by threatening the triple lock, that certainty is exactly what both the Labour and Tory parties are failing to give.

“That failure comes on top of the fact that the UK already has one of the lowest state pensions in the OECD.

“During the course of this summer, you have quickly fallen into line when Sir Keir Starmer has decided to copy cruel Tory policies such as maintaining the two-child cap and rape clause, the bedroom tax and, of course, backing Brexit.

“The public will not forgive the Labour Party if it continues to impose these damaging policies and takes an axe to the triple lock.

“Can you therefore answer the simple question that your London bosses won’t.

“Does Scottish Labour support the state pension triple lock beyond the next general election or are you now positioning yourselves alongside the Tories in threatening to scrap it?

“Pensioners across Scotland are now asking that question and they deserve an answer.

“It’s time to come clean over whether the Labour Party is secretly planning to scrap the triple lock and impose real-terms cuts to Scottish pensions.”

Deputy leader of Scottish Labour Jackie Baillie said: “This is a pathetic and desperate intervention from a party with nothing to offer the people of Scotland.

“We all know that the SNP cannot be trusted with pensions.

“The SNP’s pipe-dream plans for independence would devastate the pensions of millions of Scots.

“The fact is that the SNP would rather do the Tories’ dirty work by attacking Labour than standing up for the people of Scotland. The truth is that the Tories and the SNP need each other.

“No amount of leaflets delivered by workers on exploitative zero-hours contracts will convince the people of Scotland that the SNP is anything but a busted flush.

“While the SNP snipe from the sidelines, Scottish Labour is getting to work to deliver the change that Scotland needs.”