Social Security

That is my next point. At the election, the Conservative party laid out proposals to help to lift pensioners out of poverty, to bring them dignity and not means-testing, and to bring back the link between average earnings and the state pension. Labour Members will point out that that link was removed by the Conservatives, but I ask them when that happened. It was in 1980, at the end of a decade in which Labour Governments had brought the economy of this country to its knees. That is why we had to remove the link. By 1997, we had transformed the economy, which is why Labour Members should join Help the Aged, Aged Concern and the National Pensioners Convention—indeed, with everyone associated with pensions except the Chancellor of the Exchequer—in believing that we should bring back the link between average earnings and the state pension. We should not allow the number of people dragged into the hole between pension credit and the state pension to increase. It is beyond belief that we can even consider having 70 per cent. of people dependent on this Government’s mean means-tested benefits in as short a time as 44 years. We need a Conservative Government to lift people out of poverty, because they want dignity, not means-testing. We need to bring back the link, and we need to stop the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s pernicious, poverty-inducing increases in council tax. We had proposals to deal with those issues at the last election, and I look forward, under the leadership of my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney, to my party coming forward with a considered position that will help to bring dignity back to the people of this country and provide hope for those with least.