Rishi Sunak gives State Pension update as he's challenged on 'cut'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said State Pensions will not be cut to cover a proposed abolishment of national insurance. He was challenged on the issue during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

Speaking in the Commons, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "Has he found the money to fund his £46billion promise to abolish National Insurance? Whenever he's asked about the date of the election or people's pensions, he acts as if answering straightforward questions is somehow beneath him. But pensioners and those who are planning their retirement deserve better for his contempt for their questions, because if £46billion was cut from its funding, the value of the State Pension would almost half."

He added: "So I don't apologise for asking on their behalf again, whether he will finally rule out cutting their state pension to fulfil the enormous black hole in his spending plans."

Mr Sunak replied: "Of course we can rule that out, and (Sir Keir) should stop scaremongering, because it's thanks to the triple lock that we've increased pensions by £3,700 since 2010 and they will rise in each and every year of the next Parliament. But its Labour that always hits pensioners hard, it is his mentors Blair and Brown that broke their promises, raised pension taxes by £118 billion and delivered an insulting 75p rise in the state pension."