Ronnie Campbell
Main Page: Ronnie Campbell (Labour - Blyth Valley)Department Debates - View all Ronnie Campbell's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
(8 years, 8 months ago)
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Mr Duncan Smith
I am also worried about the hon. Member for Blyth Valley (Mr Campbell). He has been here a long time and I want him to have a very good retirement, but he needs to calm down or he will not make it at this rate.
I remind the Opposition that the questions that the hon. Member for Pontypridd asked were all answered by his party when it was in government. It was the Labour Government who raised the state pension age—[Interruption.] Labour Members do not like being reminded of that. They did not have an independent review before they did it. They did it arbitrarily and set a set of dates, but they did not ask an independent reviewer to look at them. We are doing that now. That is what we were asked to do, and I think we are being reasonable about it.
It is also worth reminding the hon. Gentleman of what the then shadow Pensions Minister, Gregg McClymont, said when this statutory review—it is, I repeat, statutory—was passed by the Pensions Act 2014. He said—
Mr Duncan Smith
Yes, I am doing it, but the hon. Gentleman’s party agreed with it. He should calm down, or he will never make it to state pension age. Gregg McClymont, the then Opposition spokesman, said at the time,
“we do not oppose the Bill”.—[Official Report, 29 October 2013; Vol. 569, c. 870.]
That was Labour’s position on the statutory requirement to review the state pension age. Baroness Sherlock said:
“It is vital that the way the state pension age is reviewed is…seen to be fair”.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 3 December 2013; Vol. 750, c. 146.]
That is exactly what we are doing.
It is Labour that instituted the rises in the state pension, raised women’s state pension age and went for the equalisation of state pension age. In government, it started to do the responsible things, but in opposition it is utterly irresponsible and pointless.
I have one final comment to make to the hon. Member for Pontypridd. As I stood up, somebody said to me—[Interruption.]