Rishi Sunak fails to rule out raising state pension age to 75 to fund £46bn ‘black hole’

During Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer reminded the Prime Minister that scrapping National Insurance would cost £46billion a year.

He pressed Sunak on how this cost would be covered, pointing out Conservative Party peer Lord Frost has suggested that the state pension age should be raised to 75 to fund the spending plans.

Starmer said: “Understandably, that will cause some alarm, so will the Prime Minister rule out forcing people to delay their retirement by years and years in order to fulfil his £46billion black hole?”

Despite fears of how this £46billion funding gap will be covered, the Prime Minister failed to rule out raising the retirement age.

He stated Sir Keir Starmer should "stop scaremongering" after the Labour leader repeatedly pressed for details on how the move would be funded.

Sunak instead focused on his commitment to triple lock which keeps the value of the pension rising in line with earnings or inflation.

The Prime Minister responded: “I have answered this multiple times, but I am happy to say it again: the Conservative Party is the party that has delivered and protected the triple lock.”

However, he did insist that the state pension would not be cut to fund his ambition to scrap National Insurance contributions altogether.

Sunak said: "Of course we can rule that out, and (Sir Keir) should stop scaremongering, because it's thanks to the triple lock that we've increased pensions by £3,700 since 2010 and they will rise in each and every year of the next Parliament.

“But its Labour that always hits pensioners hard. It is his mentors Blair and Brown that broke their promises, raised pension taxes by £118billion and delivered an insulting 75p rise in the state pension."

The Labour Party argues the abolishment of National Insurance would amount to £46billion and “puts people’s retirement at risk”.

Not only was the triple lock confirmed, the Prime Minister pointed out it was his Government that doubled Winter Fuel Payments as part of its cost of living support scheme to support pensioners.

He continued: “It’s Labour’s newest tax adviser who thinks pensioners should be taxed more.

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“This adviser calls them codgers, he thinks that supporting them is a ‘disgrace’, and he thinks that their free TV licences are ‘ridiculous’.

“It’s Labour who hit pensioners with tax after tax and they would do it all over again!”

This came after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt suggested the Government will look to abolish National Insurance contributions.

Hunt announced a 2p cut in National Insurance and outlined a “long-term ambition” to abolish it altogether. When being asked about whether the ambition would really cost £46billion, Mr Sunak’s spokesman suggested the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) watchdog could not yet put a number on the long-term plan.

The official said: “That is obviously not a costing made by the OBR, but could not name the actual price tag.

“That’s a question for the OBR which will assess policies as and when they are announced at future fiscal events.”

However he indicated that would not happen at the next fiscal event, saying: “It’s Government policy, but it doesn’t have a specific timetable and that is why the OBR is not costing it.

“We’re going to make progress on it over a period of time. We’ll make progress on this ambition at a number of fiscal events. As and when that progress is made, the OBR will put a figure on the announcements as and when they are made. But that number is not a static figure.”

The spokesman added: “We’ve always said that we will do so in a manner that is prudent. We want to make significant progress in the next parliament.”