Challenge made over pensions triple lock

Airdrie MP Anum Qaisar has challenged Central Scotland’s three Tory MSPS to explain whether they support their party’s decision to end the pensions triple lock.

Scotland’s Tory MPS voted in favour of scrapping the triple lock, which is set to leave over one million pensioners in Scotland £520 worse off next year, and a cumulative £2600 worse off over the next five years.

Research from the House of Commons Library, conducted in June, revealed UK pensions are the least generous in North-west Europe by comparison to the average wage.

UK pensioners currently receive around a quarter (28 per cent) of the average working wage whilst pensioners in Luxembourg and Austria receive 90 per cent.

Ms Qaisar told the

Advertiser: “Over 55,000 people across North Lanarkshire will be significantly worse off next year as a result of yet another broken Tory pledge.

“It’s no wonder that North Lanarkshire doesn’t have a single Tory MP when they wilfully vote to take money out of the pockets of their constituents.

“However, our three regional Tory MSPS now have to explain why they’ve sat back and said nothing as their colleagues traipsed through the voting lobby.

“Even the House of Lords, as out-of-touch as they normally are, managed to vote against scrapping the triple lock.

“I think there’s little doubt that if these decisions were taken in the Scottish Parliament, MSPS would not be voting to make the worst state pension in Northern Europe even worse than it already is.

“If nothing else, it only confirms that these decisions belong in Holyrood.”

Seeking answers Ms Qaisar says the MSPS “have to explain why they sat back and said nothing”