This is really bad...

[nearlylovemyusername]

Have you seen this??

I can't believe that a lawyer and future PM of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland cannot express himself correctly so don't accept it's just a slip.

They are considering abolishing tax free pension lump sum? or Mr Starmer doesn't know how this works? something so huge and affecting millions of people big time? And his own party are trying to correct him? what else is being or not being considered?

but hang on, teachers will get respect instead!

So all the teachers on this thread - don't you worry, this is all going to be sorted for you
Page 38 | To think droves of teachers will make the decision by husband made today- to leave | Mumsnet

I taught under Labour and Conservative.

I left under Conservative. I would consider a return under Labour. The late 90’s/2000 were the golden years in education.

fair enough

It is a permanent feature. Changing it would cause chaos in public sector schemes. They could possibly cap it so only high earners are caught but that would NOT go well in the NHS

Unless you're a very high earner, you have little to worry about. But I agree he seems to have been inconsistent

Well@nearlylovemyusername it's just another butt fuck for anyone who tries to look after themselves in old age isn't it . You pay a private pension take out a lump sum to do as you please with but now they want to have some of it off you 🤬

@Tittyfilarious exactly! for many people their entire financial planning was based on the expectation of this tax free lump sum, especially those close to retirement, e.g put more in pension now and pay off your mortgage from this.

Yes it is a permanent feature at the moment, but what stops Labour to cancel it??

And Starmer not knowing it's permanent is a show of utter incompetence. But never mind, this is still up for grab according to him

Re high earners:
It's now over 1m people in the UK who pay 45% income tax, means after pension deduction their gross income is over £125k.
Number of UK top rate taxpayers set to surpass 1mn for the first time (ft.com)

Were these questions he was given advance notice on, or ones he had to respond to live? I can see that it's already been corrected in the clarification in the links you've posted.

The problem with surprise questions is that PMs and prospective PMs cannot be detail experts on every policy area - Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Corbyn, Cameron, etc. have all been caught out by the fine details in answers to live questions in the past.

@DogInATent

I get your point, but I'm not sure I can entirely agree with this - you and I could be lost with ad-hoc question, it's not forgivable for his calibre. And we aren't in Putin's Russia where questions should be pre-reviewed.

This policy is absolutely massive for everyone.
I could potentially understand that he doesn't know the policy is permanent, but he still didn't rule it out that Labour will review it. So own party had to correct him not to spook voters.

This all looks exactly the same chaotic as Tory, just much higher taxes.

And despite all of this there's still no money for teachers retention, but they will get respect. What a joke!

"I can see that it's already been corrected in the clarification in the links you've posted"

No, it hasn't been corrected - it was sense checked by BBC

It's in the last paragraph of the fact check. They spoke to Starmer's office and they agreed with the fact check.

Who's your preferred PM candidate who's faultless and never makes an error?

What a fucking ridiculously over dramatic title OP 🙄. A lot of drama over nothing.

And I second the poster who taught under Labour and would consider a return - me too. Teaching from 97 to 2010 was a dream compared to the utter clusterfuck that followed. I left two years ago but would definitely consider a return under Starmer.

It sounds like he didn't exactly understand what he was being asked.

But when the bbc asked labour about it (your second screenshot) they unambiguously said they had no plans to change it. I can't really get worked up about this.

Yes it is a permanent feature at the moment, but what stops Labour to cancel it??

Odd question. What stops them abolishing the tax free threshold for income tax. What prevents them quadrupling council tax. What prevents them making inheritance tax 100%.
You can list literally all the bad things in the world and say "what's to prevent labour/the Tories doing X??!?"

Ah - listening to the whole thing I think he is thinking about the income tax threshold. He's heard "pension" and "tax" and got it muddled.
He talks about the changes the Tories talked about ("triple lock plus") and how Labour would not do what the Tories have said. That is a difference that will lead to more tax on pensioners. But it's not the tax free lump sum.
As it stands, in a few years the state pension would overtake the income tax threshold, which I think is what he means by a few years.

I think he's got the two things muddled and has made a mistake. It's an error. And one that very well may worry a lot of people.