Chancellor in new gaffe over £425bn pension reform
Rachel Reeves has been accused of a 'shocking grasp of detail' and ordered to correct the record after getting basic facts about one of her flagship pension reforms wrong, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
She wants to kickstart sluggish growth by encouraging pension funds to invest more of their money in home-grown ventures. One of her plans is to create a series of town hall 'mega-funds' in the biggest overhaul of the £425 billion Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in a decade.
Replying to a question from former Chancellor Lord Lamont, Reeves claimed the LGPS was managed by '96 different administering authorities' which she wants to reduce to 'eight pools'. She repeated the erroneous claims despite being flanked by two Treasury officials and reading from copious briefing notes.
But the LGPS is managed by 86 local authorities, while the number of pools is being cut from eight to six under controversial new laws that will force two pools covering the Tory shires of southern England to find new homes by next March.
She wants to kickstart sluggish growth by encouraging pension funds to invest more of their money in home-grown ventures. One of her plans is to create a series of town hall 'mega-funds' in the biggest overhaul of the £425 billion Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in a decade.
Replying to a question from former Chancellor Lord Lamont, Reeves claimed the LGPS was managed by '96 different administering authorities' which she wants to reduce to 'eight pools'. She repeated the erroneous claims despite being flanked by two Treasury officials and reading from copious briefing notes.
But the LGPS is managed by 86 local authorities, while the number of pools is being cut from eight to six under controversial new laws that will force two pools covering the Tory shires of southern England to find new homes by next March.
It's an interesting gaffe this one. Numerate people would remember the numbers with ease as they are part of the overview of the plan. Many people who have read this article only once will remember the numbers easily enough.
A Chancellor who gets such simple numbers wrong is either easily flustered over numbers or not very good with them anyway. A Chancellor who blagged her way into a job she can't do - well here's another clue to reinforce that view.
2 comments:
Talking of numbskulls did you see that some ass in the Cabinet has declared that we are prepared o go to war to defend Taiwan?
Apparently we discriminate between different Asian island groups so that we will defend only those where we have no national interest.
dearieme - yes I saw that, bonkers, but the party whip isn't withdrawn for insane sabre-rattling.
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