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Pensions Reform

I very much welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement today, representing as it does the breaking of a logjam in pensions policy. But will he not go a little further in doing something to help today’s pensioners now? May I suggest that he give serious consideration to raising the basic state pension fairly rapidly toward the point that it would have reached had the Tories not broken the earnings link? If it is a question of affordability, I should point out that, if we can afford to subsidise the savings of the rich to the tune of tens of billions of pounds every year, surely this is affordable.