Starmer accused of hypocrisy over deal that avoids tax on his pension

Sir Keir Starmer is accused of hypocrisy as details emerge of his ‘unique pension deal allowing him to avoid tax on his savings’ while he campaigns against Government reforms for high earners

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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’.

But The Telegraph claimed that Sir Keir is himself exempt from tax rules he would apply to other workers who save more than £1 million, under a special arrangement with the Government from his time as Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales between 2008 and 2013.

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.

Labour leader Keir Starmer during a press conference at the Labour party headquarters in central London

‘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.

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

The Labour leader has pledged to force other wealthy savers to be subject to a cap on their pension savings and last night led a Parliamentary attempt to overturn the centrepiece of Mr Hunt’s Budget.

Sir Keir has vowed to reverse it if Labour wins the next general election.

The Telegraph reported that Sir Keir’s civil service pension is not large enough to incur a tax charge under the pension cap system on its own, and he has not paid into it since 2013.

Under the current system, almost all taxpayers must pay rates of 25 per cent on money taken as income, or 55 per cent on a lump sum, on any sums over £1.07million.

But under Sir Keir’s arrangement, any money he saved while serving as DPP does not count towards his total.

A Labour spokesperson said: ‘The pension rules for the Director of Public Prosecution are set by the government of the day, not the DPP themselves.’

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