Chancellor backtracks on pensions scare story
GEORGE Osborne was last night attacked on live TV for claiming that Brexit would hit pensioners as he reluctantly admitted their income would actually be protected.
Presenter Andrew Neil told the Chancellor he should be ‘ashamed’ of a pro-EU advert showing an elderly woman with an empty purse.
Last month, Mr Osborne had prompted controversy by claiming that quitting the EU would trigger higher inflation, leaving pensioners losing as much as £32,000.
In last night’s BBC interview, he continued to insist the elderly had ‘a lot to be scared about if we leave the EU’. However, under heavy pressure from Mr Neil, he conceded pensioners
‘You should be ashamed’
would benefit from a ‘triple lock’ on their incomes.
This Government measure is enshrined in law and means the State pension will always rise by inflation or the rate of earnings or 2.5 per cent. Even if prices spike, their income will not rise by less than inflation.
During their fraught 30minute encounter, Mr Neil pointed to the empty purse poster released by the Osborne-backed Britain Stronger in Europe group. He then told the Chancellor: ‘You’ve been scaring pensioners. You should be ashamed of yourself.’
In the interview, Mr Osborne looked rattled at times but ramped up Project Fear. He used the metaphor of a snakes and ladders board, saying that voting Leave was the equivalent of landing on a ‘big snake’. He added: ‘It is vital people realise what is at stake here. The prosperity of our economy. We would have a recession, people’s incomes would be hit, their ability to provide for their families would be hit.’
Opinion polls show the referendum neck and neck while David Cameron is showing signs that he is feeling the pressure. Mr Osborne also insisted that Britain leaving the EU would be like a runner shooting themselves in the foot before a race. He conceded that the Government’s pledge to cut net migration to the tens of thousands was now an ‘ambition’.
But he claimed: ‘I do not believe there is some fantasy world out there that if we leave the EU we can somehow have greater control of our immigration.’
Mr Osborne insisted that if jobless EU migrants came to Britain, they could be sent home after six months, but was unable to say how many had been removed.
He also urged voters to reject ‘Nigel Farage’s’ Britain, adding: ‘It’s mean, it’s divisive, it’s not who we are as a country. We’re fighting for the soul of this country.’