JEREMY Corbyn will today pitch for Britain’s grey vote with the release of Labour’s new “pensioners’ pledge card”.
Reminiscent of the pledge card New Labour produced in the 1990s, famously promoted by former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, John McDonnell, launching the party’s new version, said: “Labour's new pledge card sets out our offer to restore dignity and proper support for older people after being abandoned by the Conservatives.
“Older people have had their pensions threatened under the Tories and nearly four million women born in the 1950s had their pensions robbed.
“The scandalous state of the care system is perhaps the biggest crisis facing our country. Labour will build a new National Care Service with free care for those who need it at the heart," added the Shadow Chancellor.
Labour HQ said that the Conservatives had cut £8 billion from social care since 2010 but did not allocate a single penny extra to the service in their election manifesto, launched on Sunday. It pointed out how Age UK had estimated that some 1.5 million older people were not getting the care they needed.
The pledge card aimed at Britain's 12 million pensioners will include plans to:
*reinstate free TV licences for the over-75s;
*compensate nearly four million WASPI women, who “lost out unfairly” when the change in the state pension age was changed;
*invest in Warm Homes for All with insulation for every home – Labour insists its programme will cut annual household energy bills by more than £400;
*introduce free personal care and invest £10.8 billion in social care provision south of the border;
*keep free bus passes for older people;
*restore 3,000 bus routes in England cut under the Tories as well as return powers to councils to regulate services and
*end the injustice of the state “skimming 50 per cent off” the mineworkers’ pensions schemes.
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