Keir Starmer accused of hypocrisy for deal allowing him to avoid tax on pension

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has a unique pension deal that allows him to avoid tax on his savings, despite being a vocal critic of the Government’s pensions shake-up for big earners, it was claimed last night.

Sir Keir criticised Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s plans announced in last week’s Budget to abolish the tax-free limit on pensions savings, which had stood at £1.07 million, describing it as a ‘huge giveaway to some of the very wealthiest’.

He was last night accused of hypocrisy over the set-up.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, said: ‘Politicians who take policy positions should recognise that complaining that others benefit, while they themselves have also benefited, is as close to hypocrisy as it is possible to get.

‘This makes a mockery of the current Labour Party position.’

Fellow Tory MP Kieran Mullan said: ‘This is brazen hypocrisy from Sir Keir Starmer.

‘While Starmer benefits from a bespoke public sector pension with no lifetime cap, he wants to re-introduce a cap for everyone else.

‘Sir Keir should come clean and explain why he should benefit from an uncapped pension pot, but other public servants shouldn’t.’

Source of data and images: dailymail