War veteran, 99, accuses Starmer of having ‘no respect’ for frozen pensioners

A 99-year-old war veteran has accused Sir Keir Starmer of having “no respect” for pensioners after he refused to meet her in Westminster.

Anne Puckridge is one of half a million British retirees who do not benefit from annual increases in their state pension because they live abroad.

She delivered a petition with 130,000 signatures to Downing Street on Thursday morning, urging the Prime Minister to meet with her and discuss the issue.

Ms Puckridge made the 4,400-mile trip from Canada, one of the countries where the pensions of British expats are not inflation-linked. She has calculated that her “frozen” pension has cost her around £60,000.

She told The Telegraph she felt “betrayed” by Sir Keir after Labour previously pledged to end frozen pensions.

The party’s election manifesto from 2019, when Sir Keir was in the shadow cabinet, promised that the pensions of UK citizens living overseas would rise in line with those in Britain.

Ms Puckridge added that the Prime Minister’s failure to follow through with the pledge, and the decision to withdraw winter fuel payments from millions of retirees “doesn’t show respect for pensioners”.

Labour abolished universal winter fuel payments of up to £300 earlier this year. The payments had been given to all 11 million pensioners in Britain, but only those on pension credit – about one million – will get the money this winter.

In the run-up to the general election, Sir Keir said pensioners “deserve security in retirement”. Ms Puckridge said: “There’s no evidence yet that his words were sincere.”

Ms Puckridge moved to Canada to be closer to her daughter in 2001, and her British state pension has been frozen at £72.50 a week ever since. Had she remained in Britain, her basic state pension would now have reached £169.50.

The lower payments have “affected every aspect” of Ms Puckridge’s life, she said.

“I’m lucky in that I’ve been able to keep well until this age, but many have had medical problems and they have not been able to get any help because it’s far too expensive.

“Some get help from foreign governments, but it’s never enough to compensate for the lower pension.”

The Government has struck deals with some countries to ensure those living overseas benefit from inflation-linked state pension increases.

In the United States and most of continental Europe, Britons’ state pensions are covered by the “triple lock”, which means they rise every April by the highest of wages, the rate of inflation or 2.5pc.

But in the rest of the world – including the Commonwealth – British pensioners do not receive the uplift. Successive governments have ignored campaigners’ calls to uprate the pensions in part because of cost constraints.

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