The state pension triple lock is “utterly unaffordable” and will “bankrupt” Britain, a 72-year-old Tory MP has blasted.
Sir Edward Leigh demanded his party make “difficult decisions” for the nation’s 12.3million pensioners after payments rise 10.1% in April.
In a hardline speech the MP also attacked people “choosing not to work” - and to shouts of protest, suggested once again that the NHS should be replaced with a French-style ‘social insurance’ model.
And he said people arriving in small boats should be “detained, arrested, dealt with quickly and deported”.
Labour MP Andy McDonald said sarcastically afterwards: “I look forward to a conversation with him after Mass about how that accords with Catholic social teaching”.
The Conservatives pledged to keep the triple lock - which raises pensions by the highest of earnings, inflation or 2.5% - in their 2019 manifesto.
But it was broken once during Covid, and ministers have reportedly looked at scrapping it and replacing it with a new system after the next election.
Sir Edward told the Commons: “I benefit from the triple lock but I have to say that long-term the triple lock is utterly unaffordable. It will bankrupt the nation.
"Of course pensions this year should go up with inflation, but what happens next year or the year after when we deal with inflation and earnings start rocketing up?
"Are pensions then going to keep pace with earnings?
“I think we have to be honest with people, and I think people are prepared to listen to Conservative governments that are prepared to take very difficult decisions."
Raising benefits and pensions will cost £11billion next year - after warnings a real-terms cut would have left more pensioners and benefit claimants struggling to eat or heat their homes.
Sir Edward also urged Rishi Sunak to “consider” an insurance system in place of the NHS.
Praising Italy, France, Germany and Sweden he said: “All these nations have social insurance policies.
“Under our system you pay taxes all your life and when you get to a certain age and you have a medical condition you are told that you can just join the back of the queue.
"In France or Germany, Italy or Sweden you have rights and I think the Government has to address this.
"We cannot just go on repeating the mantra that the NHS is the best health system in the world. It is simply not. Its outcomes on cancer and many other areas are lagging behind many other nations.”
He added: “The fact is this organisation is riddled with low productivity, waste and incompetence and we have to learn from what other countries are doing".
Questioning the rise in benefits, he said: “We do have a real, massive problem in this country with more and more people choosing not to work
“We have to ask ourselves if benefits are increasing with inflation which is very high, while public sector pay is being kept down, that is a disincentive to work.”
Moments later a Labour MP revealed how a mum in her constituency was living with “huge fungus” and rats.
Andy McDonald told the debate on the Autumn Statement: “I'll call her Jill, she's there helping people equipping them with warm clothing and bedding as the winter approaches.
“Jill has two children living with her, a teenage son, we'll call him Adam, and a little daughter, Katie, I'll say, aged 11.
"At the end of the school day, those children have to return to their damp mouldy rented house.
“Katie has asthma and there's a huge fungus growing from her bedroom ceiling so she is forced to share the one bedroom with her mum and her teenage brother.
"Worse still the house is infested with rats and late last Thursday night, Jill had the nightmare of encountering a rat on the staircase.
“She showed me the photograph of a dead rat inside her own home, along with a mass of rat droppings.
“She and her family are scheduled to be rehoused later this week, but they will have to destroy their belongings and furniture as everything's impregnated with rat urine."
Mr McDonald asked MPs: "After 12 years of Tory rule and their cruel and unnecessary programme of continuous austerity, how do they and their latest leadership team dare to associate themselves with the compassion of the British people?"
