{"id":791768,"date":"2026-10-04T14:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T14:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791768\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T14:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T14:58:13","slug":"john-swinney-accused-of-misleading-parliament-with-pensions-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791768\/","title":{"rendered":"John Swinney accused of misleading Parliament with pensions claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Scottish Tory leader has written to John Swinney<\/a> urging him to \u201ccorrect the record\u201d, saying the claim was \u201cinaccurate and irresponsible\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n In his letter to the First Minister, Findlay said: \u201cI am writing to you in relation to our exchange at FMQs<\/a> on Thursday.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE: SNP activist blasts ‘divisive’ factions amid independence strategy row<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn response to my questions about the SNP<\/a>‘s out of control benefits<\/a> bill, you referred to the UK Labour Government\u2019s decision to scrap the state pension triple lock<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou stated that \u2018we are now going to lose our pensions\u2019. This inaccurate and irresponsible comment is inevitably causing concern to Scottish pensioners.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n

\n Andy Burnham announced in his speech to Labour conference last week that the party would scrap the triple lock<\/a>, if it won the next election, to help fund a new social care settlement in England.\n<\/p>\n

\n The link to earnings would be binned though the benefit would continue to rise in line with either prices or by 2.5%, whichever was higher, Burnham said.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon hits out at Labour’s ‘glaring contradiction’ on Brexit and indyref<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n Speaking on the BBC\u2019s Sunday Show, Findlay added: \u201cHe\u2019s peddled misinformation. He\u2019s said that Scottish pensioners, and I quote directly, are going to \u2018lose their pensions\u2019.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cNow that\u2019s patently false, it\u2019s absolute nonsense. Now he either misspoke, in which case, he needs to correct the record. I\u2019ve written to him this morning inviting him to do so.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cOr even worse, it\u2019s disinformation and he\u2019s knowingly misled Scottish pensioners.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n A Scottish Government<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cThe First Minister stands by his remarks.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe UK Government<\/a> has explicitly acknowledged that pensioners in the UK will be worse off by \u00a315 billion per year by 2039-40, rising to around \u00a350bn per year by 2049-50, compared to the current triple lock being maintained.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn Scotland this would equate to around a \u00a32000 reduction in real terms in individual pensioner incomes by 2049-50, as compared to the existing triple lock policy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Scottish Tory leader has written to John Swinney urging him to \u201ccorrect the record\u201d, saying the claim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-791768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}