GB News host Eamonn Holmes was left fuming after the Tories announced that if elected, they will raise the tax-free pension allowance via a "Triple Lock Plus".
Under the plans, the personal allowance for pensioners will increase at least 2.5 per cent or in line with the highest of earnings or inflation.
Labour has criticised the move heavily by arguing that it is not "credible".
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride defended the pledge on GB News this morning, claiming that "pensioners deserve to retire with dignity" and said that they will fund the cuts by "clamping down on tax avoidance".
Eamonn Holmes fumed at the MP
GB News
However, his answer left Eamonn livid as he asked: "Instead, you just steal money from those out there earning it then? By that, I mean through retrospective taxes such as the IR35."
IR35, or off-payroll working rules, ensures that a worker (sometimes known as a contractor) pays broadly the same Income Tax and National Insurance as an employee would.
Stride responded: "There are rules behind IR35 and the nature of the way that people should be taxed. What we have done, for those who are of working age, is slash national insurance for employees by one-third. So that means that they will be getting a £900 reduction in their taxes as a result of those tax cuts that we have announced."
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Eamonn asked him: "Okay, but where are you getting this extra money from to pay for that?"
Stride responded: "In terms of how we will fund those tax cuts for pensioners, that is by clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion. That's £6 billion that we can save by the end of 2035. IR35 is a completely different matter to pensioners and taxation.
Eamonn responded: "No, but it isn't to people who are out there earning because you go out and you say to them, I know we've said you've been self-employed for all these years, but we're now changing our mind and you're not self-employed.
"So, you give with one hand and you take with another. Somebody has to pay for these pension rises and it's going to be working people, people who are window cleaners and freelance nurses and freelance doctors and freelance anything. You don't like that."
The pledge from the Conservatives would be a boost for pensioners
GETTYHe later added: "They go and they steal money from people. The department of thievery. Then they say, 'I know you've earned this...
"'I know you've been taxed in this, but we need to get money. The country's broke. How do we do this now? We'll announce we're doing pensions, but we need to steal money from more working people out there. And if you're freelance, we're coming to get you with IR35'. That's what it's about."
The MP explained: "No, this has got nothing to do with that. IR35 has been around for many years and it is a way of assessing the tax regime that is appropriate for somebody given the way that they are working, whether they are genuinely self-employed or effectively employed by somebody else.
"That is completely different from the announcement we're making today, which is that pensioners will have their tax cut throughout the next parliament. The Labour Party have dismissed this."
Stride claimed that Labour has "dismissed" this
GB News
He added: "This basically means that during the next parliament under Labour, what you're going to be seeing is millions of pensioners being dragged into paying income tax, having to fill all those forms, in all that paperwork and red tape and extra costs.
He added: “We've also, particularly for young people, increased the national living wage now by close to 10 per cent as of this April.
“So we are doing things for those that are hard-working and in work, but we do think that pensioners matter.
“Labour dismissing what we're doing today is simply going to mean that millions of pensioners are going to start paying income tax for the first time, which we don't think is right.”
