Mel Stride: Pensioners deserve better than their treatment by Labour

Something is happening for the first time in our country's history and Labour won't say a word about it. Millions of pensioners are on course to pay income tax on their state pension.

With tax thresholds frozen, the full state pension is now set to rise above the personal allowance. That means millions who've spent their lives working and contributing will be pulled into tax simply for receiving what they were promised. This is the result of creeping fiscal drag but also of political cowardice. Labour won't reverse it and even worse they won't even acknowledge it.

But this is far from an accident. They have had the chance to fix it.

The Conservatives set out a clear solution at the General Election with our Triple Lock Plus, a straightforward measure to ensure the tax-free allowance for pensioners rises in line with the state pension.

Labour dismissed it as a gimmick but failed to offer any alternative.

We have already seen how they treat older people. Over 10 million pensioners have lost their Winter Fuel Payments under Labour.

The Labour Party's own research showed that 4,000 people would die as a result of the scrapping of Winter Fuel Payments, and information slipped out by the Labour Government estimated that 100,000 would be thrown into poverty.

None of this should surprise us. Labour's new pensions minister has openly disparaged the triple lock, and clearly doesn't believe pensioner incomes should be protected, yet now finds himself in charge at the very moment pensioners face being taxed for the first time.

Labour are taxing the modest incomes of people who have done everything asked of them, paid in, worked hard, only to be handed a tax bill in retirement. Under Labour, nothing is safe from taxation.

Pensioners deserve better than to be treated as an afterthought. They deserve clarity and protection.

The Conservatives believe retirement should mean security and peace of mind. Labour, it seems, believe retirement is just another revenue stream.

Pensioners are right to be angry and the country should be, too.