Downing Street Says

Asked in regard to the leaked letter from the Chancellor to the Turner Commission whether he could deny that it had come from No10 and if it had what would the consequences be, the PMOS said that he could categorically deny, as far as his knowledge and those he had spoken to at No10, that we were not responsible for the leak. Our position on this was, and had been all week, that nothing was ruled in, nothing was ruled out.

We should wait for the Turner report to be published. As John Hutton had said that should be the start of a serious debate on pensions. Therefore leaking an element of the report was entirely against that process. We wanted this to be a debate, which debated the Turner report as a whole not elements of what was thought to be in it. Therefore leaking elements of the report was completely counter to what we wanted. It was better that we waiting for the report. It was a serious report. We believed it was a serious analysis and therefore it deserved serious treatment. Not one-sided leaking, which helped nobody.

Asked about the Times article suggesting Digby Jones had been encouraged to believe by the Government that once this pension debate got under way that the deal for public sector pensions at 60 would be back on the table, the PMOS said that he had nothing more to add about the public sector pension deal. The estimate was that it would save £13 billion between now and 2050. For a detailed response the best thing would be to speak to the DTI.

Asked whether the Chancellor was sabotaging the system if as he had said people should not debate elements of the report but debate the full report, the PMOS said that what the Chancellor had said was that any proposal had to be an affordable one. That was the Government position. The Prime Minister had said that yesterday. John Hutton had said it had to be fair and encourage people to save. It was important however to wait and see the report in full and then have a proper debate. That was a debate that could begin next week when it was published. In answer to a further question, the PMOS said what he thought would be helpful would be to wait until next week when we could have a proper debate.

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» Friday, November 25, 2005

Pensions

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