MILLIONS FACE THREAT TO THEIR PENSION
MILLIONS of private pensions will be put at risk by Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to nationalise utilities.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey raised fears the nationalisation plans
would risk “impoverishing” people who worked hard all their lives and saved for their retirement.
The senior Cabinet member’s warning came as she unveiled a raft of measures to make the immigration system fairer and end the export of benefits, saving taxpayers at least £800million a year.
The row over Labour’s plan to nationalise industries such as rail, water and energy yesterday grew after Jeremy Corbyn said he would bring UK broadband into state ownership.
But BT’S chief executive Philip Jansen rubbished the idea and said it would cost around “£100billion”.
Research carried out by this newspaper has revealed dozens of private pension funds for ordinary people plough money into the industries Labour are targeting.
According to figures from Water UK, more than six million people invest heavily in the water industry via 67 pension funds.
Pensions are paid for from dividends in shares and property investments made by the funds.
Blue chip utility companies are a popular choice for investments because they are seen as stable.
But if water companies were to become nationalised, more than 155,000 members of the Mineworkers
Pension
Scheme would be affected, as well as 370,000 people in the Greater Manchester scheme for local authority workers and almost 135,000 members of the Merseyside local authority pension fund.
More than 350,000 Tesco workers and 300,000 members of BT staff with private sector pensions would also be hit.
The BBC, British Airways, Church of England Investment Fund for Pensions and the superannuation scheme for lecturers would also be affected. Ironically, the pension funds of the left-wing RMT union are heavily invested in BT, the energy giant SSE and National Grid. When asked if Labour’s plans would risk impoverishing people who have saved for their retirement, Ms Coffey said “yes”.
She pointed out that the Tory’s triple lock on the state pension has added £1,900 a year to its value since 2010, but would do little to help with the shortfall if private pension funds were hit by Labour’s nationalisation plans.
Ms Coffey said: “Corbyn and Labour somehow imagine that it is just billionaires who invest in utilities. But in reality it is ordinary people’s pension funds, people in the public and private sectors who have worked and saved all their lives.
“For me, this is classic shortterm headline-grabbing from the [shadow chancellor John] Mcdonnell agenda.
“He thinks he is pulling out something which sounds very glamorous and we are just going to nationalise things.
“The majority of people who have pensions invested – whether they are public sector workers or
not – will be investing in FTSE100 companies, which include BT.”
Ms Coffey also warned that the nationalisation of industries would also have an impact on investment in the UK.
She said: “This will scare a lot of investors who are taking all that
infrastructure investment so we can spend more on our hospitals, schools and all the other elements of public sector services.
“It’s taking with one hand and taking away with the other hand as well.” Water UK has said the industry needs to invest between
£8billion and £10billion a year to ensure water quality and environmental performance.
Northern Ireland Water – which is still nationalised – has only managed to raise enough money in three out of the last 12 years. Meanwhile, Richard Hooper,
chairman of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, warned the Labour threat of nationalisation “would wipe out the existing and future investment plans” for super-fast broadband.
In a separate development, EU citizens will have to show they have a job before being able to live in the UK from 2021.
The proposals will come into effect after Britain’s departure from the EU as a result of the Conservatives’ £20million boost to strengthen border control.
EU citizens will not be entitled to benefits for five years either whereas now, they can automatically pocket welfare as soon as they arrive in the UK.
Exporting child benefit to other countries will also be banned.
Ms Coffey said: “Nobody should ever be coming to this country with the expectation that they are going to start getting benefits. Understandably, we are moving to a points-based immigration
system from 2021. In essence, what we are saying is that every immigrant is going to be treated the same.
“If you are coming into the country then after five years – if you have basically settled, been here and made it your life – if you need help, we will help you.”
Ms Coffey’s comments came as Andy Burnham, the Labour Mayor of Manchester, urged his party to ditch freedom of movement from their manifesto.
Labour has also pledged to increase the living wage by 2024.
But Rishi Sunak, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, warned any gains would be lost in taxes.
He said: “Whilst we’ve been working to make sure you keep more of the money you earn, Labour would take the equivalent of a month’s extra wages from you after hitting you with higher taxes to pay for their spending splurge.”
IN last week’s Sunday Express we warned you that the true horror of a Jeremy Corbyn government was only just becoming apparent.
At that point the shocking revelations of generations of debt with £1.2trillion of spending seemed bad enough.
But in today’s newspaper, we reveal the real insidious effect of Labour plans for the economy.
To some people the idea of mass nationalisation may not seem like such a problem, especially those who are not old enough to remember the awful service and lack of investment in the utilities and rail before Margaret Thatcher privatised them.
Now we know that millions of people’s pension funds would be hit by Corbyn and his cronies.
Pension funds require investments to work properly and they go to safe, stable sources such as utility companies to provide the return needed to fund the pensions of those who have worked hard and saved all their life.
So nationalisation may, to some Leftwingers, be seen as taking companies off the super-rich. But it is not.
It will hit the pensions of millions of ordinary people, including those who have worked for the public sector, in the mines, and for trade unions.
What an irony that Labour should impoverish those it claims to represent.
In contrast, we see that the Conservatives today are pledging sensible measures which will protect the public purse and our borders.
It is completely fair and just common sense that EU citizens should have the same rights to claim benefits as the rest of the world and that the export of child maintenance costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions a year should be stopped.
The election is still 25 days away but the case for voting for Boris Johnson and Conservative is just getting stronger.