The Labour Party’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell is set to launch its Labour Pensioners’ Pledge Card, which will protect UK pensioners.

Introduced today, 12 April 2017, the Card will outline the Party’s four key promises in the interests of UK pensioners. These are: legislating to continue the triple-lock policy on state pensions until 2025, (five years past the Conservative government’s plan), an end “Tory unfairness” on the women’s pension age and compensating those worst affected, the protection of UK citizens living overseas pensions and fourthly, the maintenance of the Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes for pensioners.

In addition to the pledge card, Labour has said it will publish new analysis from the House of Commons Library highlighting how pensioners will be at least £650 better off by the end of the next parliament by keeping the triple-lock.

Labour Shadow Chancellor McDonnell MP will say at the Age UK Coventry Craft and Computer Centre exhibition: “I am delighted to be launching this pledge card that will inform many elderly people in our communities that Labour is not only promising to stand up for pensioners; but is determined to ensure they keep the hard-won entitlements they currently hold.

“It’s a national scandal that pensioner poverty is rising and the Tories are refusing to commit to keeping the triple-lock or compensate women worst affected by the speeding up in the state pension age.”

McDonnell claims: “Only a Labour Government will stand up for pensioners and protect them throughout the next parliament.”

AJ Bell senior analyst Tom Selby speculated: “This is naked electioneering from Labour. The power of the grey vote has been well documented and Jeremy Corbyn now hopes this raft of promises will help turn the tide and deliver an unlikely election victory in 2020.

“The central pledge to retain the state pension triple-lock goes against the recommendations of both the Work and Pensions Select Committee and John Cridland’s independent report, both of which concluded the policy should be scrapped. The cost of Labour’s triple-lock promise is, of course, uncertain – if earnings and inflation are below 2.5% between 2020 and 2025, for example, it could be very expensive."

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