Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLindsay Roy
Main Page: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)Department Debates - View all Lindsay Roy's debates with the Department for International Development
(13 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberMy hon. Friend was being shouted down because the Labour party does not want to hear what the International Monetary Fund said about the British economy. It said:
“Strong fiscal consolidation is underway and remains essential to achieve a more sustainable budgetary position”—
[Interruption.] Members ask me to read the rest, and I will read the rest. The IMF put the question specifically:
“This raises the question whether it is time to adjust macroeconomic policies”—
the question put by the Labour party—and it said this: “The answer is no”. The IMF could not be more clear in backing the policies that we are pursuing to get this country back on track.
Q4. What message does the Prime Minister have for the hundreds of women in my constituency in their mid-50s who feel that they have been unjustly thwarted by the extension of their retirement age, contrary to the coalition agreement?
What I would say is that the first decision was taken in 1995, when there was all-party agreement that we should equalise men’s and women’s pension ages, and that was done over a long period of time. The second point is that it is right to lift the pension age for men and women to a higher level more rapidly than the last Government decided. However, the key fact is that 85% of the women affected are going to lose one year or less in terms of their pension. The last point that I would make is this. Because we have linked the pension to earnings, people who retire today will be £15,000 better off than they were under the policies of the last Government.