Oral Answers to Questions

Patricia Gibson Excerpts

Wednesday 30th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

Q10.   A cornerstone of the last Conservative manifesto was a guarantee that the basic state pension would rise by 2.5%, the rate of inflation, or earnings growth, whichever was the highest. Instead, from April the state pension will rise by less than half of the current inflation rate. How does the Prime Minister explain this abject betrayal of some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, who are squeezed by rocketing energy and food prices on the one hand and the miserliness of this Government on the other?

[The Prime Minister]

Actually, what we have done is protected pensioners so that, as a result of the triple lock, their incomes are £720 higher than they would have been had we just relied on inflation. As it is, their incomes continue to increase with inflation, and they have gone up faster and further than those of people in work. We look after elderly people and we always will.