Sir Keir Starmer came under fire on Wednesday after it emerged he has a special pension from his time as Director of Public Prosecutions.
The Labour leader led his MPs on Tuesday to oppose the Government’s move to scrap the cap on lifetime pension contributions of just over £1 million.
But now it has been reported that he enjoyed a special “tax-unregistered” pension scheme which means the lifetime allowance does not apply to his contributions from his time as DPP between 2008 and 2013.
When he stood down from the post, where he earned almost £200,000-a-year, the Government passed secondary legislation, titled the Pensions Increase (Pension Scheme for Keir Starmer QC) Regulations 2013, so his pension rises in line with prices.
Tory party chairman Greg Hands tweeted: “When it comes to pensions for the better off, it’s literally one law for Sir Keir and a different law for everyone else.”
He stressed: “Labour and Sir Keir voted in the Commons for less generous pensions for senior doctors and other workers.”
However, shadow justice secretary Steve Reed rejected accusations of hypocrisy against Sir Keir.
“It wasn’t Keir Starmer as Director of Public Prosecutions who set his own pension,” he told Sky News.
“That was set by the Conservative government at the time,” he said.
Mr Reed was asked repeatedly if Labour would change the rules.
“Those schemes were put in place so that we didn’t have an exodus of judges and you know that we’ve got the biggest backlog on record of trials,” he responded.
Labour stressed there is always a specific pension arrangement for each DPP.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt scrapped the limit on lifetime pension contributions, after which punitive tax charges applied, to try to persuade senior doctors not to retire early.
However, his move has been criticised as it will also allow other highly-paid workers to put more money away into their pensions.
