New Tory DWP Secretary Called For ‘Tax On Pensioners’

TreuPublica Editor: The SNP has called for the Tory government to rule out an attack on pensioners’ incomes – after it emerged the newly appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions called for pensioners to be forced to pay National Insurance.

Notice, the objection comes from up north, while down south the current implosion trajectory is finally bringing a smile to that interesting chap with a box of matches – Guy Fawkes.

After a backlash from pensioners (raised eyebrows, hands on hip (replacements), through gritted dentures), Thérèse Coffey MP defended her proposals, published in a paper for the Free Enterprise Group – saying “I do not regret writing what I did about National Insurance….Why should someone beyond the age of 65 get more take-home money…”.

Commenting, SNP Work and Pensions spokesperson Neil Gray MP said: “The Tory government must rule out any plan to further attack older people’s incomes by forcing pensioners to pay National Insurance.

“It is deeply worrying that the new Tory Work and Pensions Secretary proposed increasing taxes on pensioners – who are already struggling to get by after a decade of Tory cuts. The Tories cannot be trusted on pensions. Under the Tories, pensioners have been pushed into poverty and hardship. The UK now has a higher pension age, the lowest state pension in the developed world, injustice facing WASPI women, and cuts to key benefits like the free TV licence. Proposals to increase the state pension age to 75, introduce means-testing, and impose National Insurance payments would only leave older people poorer.”

 

Gray also took the opportunity to promote Scotland’s independence – “It is clear that the only way to properly protect social security, pensioners and advance Scotland’s interests is to become an equal and independent European country.”

 

And talking of take-home money – the Suffolk Coastal MP had the highest expenses claims (by quite a long way) in her home county according to figures published by the House of Commons back in 2011. £27,000 was claimed in the first six months as an MP.

Another reason to worry is that the Telegraph positively adores her. As far as the Torygraph goes, Amber Rudd is a traitor and should be sent to the Tower along with 20 something colleagues (and counting). Replacements should be more like the – “the single, Guinness-drinking and charming” new boss of the DWP.

Coffey’s voting record shows she toed the Conservative party line in voting to repeal the Human Rights Act (HRA). Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) protects the right to an adequate standard of living including food, clothing and housing. And this is what she voted against, a property with no damp or mould and against adequate food.

She was also one of 72 registered landlord MPs who voted down a new law in January 2016 that would have required landlords to make their homes fit for human habitation. Coffey was also embroiled in a Tory U-turn after facing criticism from Suffolk residents over her support for the Government’s proposal to sell off forestry and woodland in public ownership, in 2011.

In October 2016, she was criticised by the then Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron for accepting hospitality worth £890 from Ladbrokes after supporting the gambling industry in parliament as part of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

She is emphatically against all things to do with same-sex marriage.

Coffey voted against including a line critical of the News of the World newspaper’s owner Rupert Murdoch in a scandal that saw a rogue paper, editor and journalists involved in the hacking mobile phones for headlines.

Overall, a blue-blooded Tory on the right side of right-wing politics then.

 

More right-wing disciples

The move to appoint Coffey follows the appointment of Tim Montgomerie as Boris Johnson’s social justice adviser. Mr Montgomerie previously suggested means-testing pensions and was a co-founder of Iain Duncan Smith’s right-wing Centre for Social Justice think tank, which proposed raising the state pension age to 75.

It’s ironic that Coffey and Montgomerie are on the warpath against the very people who voted in their boss BJ – who, in turn,  gave them both the jobs they now have in the first place! Twisted loyalties or what?

Montgomerie also believes in both change and dictators. To use his own words; “Regime change in Downing Street must now be a prompt for a serious overhaul” and is a big fan of Donald Trump; “Donald Trump is often crude, sometimes offensively so, but he was also the most prominent politician on the right to “get it.”

With regards to Brexit his view is that – “A new emphasis on putting the nation-state first, with less reliance on standing, “supranational” institutions like the European Union and United Nations. 

All of those words came straight out of the mouth of the man in the driving seat at the heart of government – Dominic Cummings.

 

 

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