Kemi Badenoch accuses Keir Starmer of misleading House and being 'anti-growth'
Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir Starmer of misleading the House and being “anti-growth”, while the prime minister said the Conservative leader's only policy was to “shrink pensions”.
Sir Keir Starmer has committed that the government will not means-test the state pension.
During exchanges focused on the growth strategies announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves yesterday, the Conservative leader also accused the prime minister of having “misled” MPs in relation to his comments on the Children’s Wellbeing Bill.
Opening Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said: “Let me be absolutely clear, there will be no means-testing of the state pension under this Labour government.
“We’re committed both to the triple lock and to the principle that people should receive pension based on their contribution, regardless of their wealth.”
He added: “When people like the leader of opposition say that they want means-testing, that means a cut, the difference is they cut pensions, we are increasing them.”
The government has come under fire for introducing means-testing of the winter fuel payment, making it applicable only to those claiming pension credit.
As Mrs Badenoch came to the Despatch box to call on Sir Keir to withdraw the Employment Rights Bill, which she described as “anti-growth” she said: “(Sir Keir) doesn’t want to talk about the Employment Bill because he doesn’t know about it.
“Last week he misled the House, he was not on top of his own education bill.”
Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: “We can’t accuse the prime minister of misleading the House.”
As Tory MPs shouted “he did”, Sir Lindsay said to Mrs Badenoch: “No, we can’t do it. I’m sure there’s words that you would prefer to use.”
She continued: “Last week, he claimed to have laid down an amendment that he had not made. He doesn’t know what is going on in here or out there.”
After reiterating growth policies outlined by Ms Reeves, Sir Keir said: “We want to grow the economy, the only policies (Mrs Badenoch’s) got is to shrink pensions.”