Clegg Howler Over Pensions

By Matt Chorley London Editor

Nick Clegg was last night facing the wrath of Westcountry pensioners after claiming the retired are forced to get by on just pounds30-a-week.

Wally Cotgrave, who will be 70 tomorrow, used a TV phone-in to ask Mr Clegg if he knew the level of the basic state pension.

After initially dodging the question, the party chief eventually suggested: "I think it’s about thirty quid now, isn’t it?"

This year the basic pension is actually worth pounds90.70 – three times Mr Clegg’s estimate leading to accusations he is "out of touch".

Pensioners’ charities said there was "no excuse" for the mistake.

Last night Mr Cotgrave, a retired self-employed welder and blacksmith, who lives in Sidmouth, East Devon, with his wife Maureen, 73, told the WMN the episode would be "damaging" for the Lib-Dems. "For somebody in his position to say that is brutally unbelievable," he said.

The row risks over-shadowing the Mr Clegg’s keynote speech today when he brings the party’s annual conference in Bournmenouth to a close. He is expected to claim only the Lib-Dems can deliver "social justice" by "connecting" with real people.

But Mr Cotgrave said it was astonishing that Mr Clegg did not appear to know what he was talking about. He caught the Lib-Dem leader out in a viewers’ Q&A session on ITV Westcountry last night.

"I knew it might discomfort him but I never thought for one moment he would be that out of touch," he said. " It is absolutely unbelievable. This is obviously damaging to him."

Mr Cotgrave said the pounds30 figure is "just a bottle of wine or a lunch" to Mr Clegg. "He is in a different world. Maybe he doesn’t have the brain for the job. People like him make the right noises and say the right things when they want your vote, but they don’t actually know anything. They’re all out of touch. He’s been talking about pensions this week but he doesn’t know the first thing about it."

Mr Cotgrave and his wife get by on the basic state pension of pounds90.70 a week, plus pension credit. His self-employed status means he did not get a chance to build up a lucrative, gold-plated scheme like public sector workers.

In June Mr Clegg – who lives in a pounds1.3 million London home – sought to put himself on the side of pensioners by warning Gordon Brown that "750,000 more British pensioners, are set to plunge into fuel poverty" this winter.

But his efforts have been dramatically undermined by last night’s TV howler, which the Government seized on as proof the Lib-Dems are not living in the real world.

Pensions Minister Mike O’Brien said: "This just shows how out of touch Nick Clegg is with the lives of ordinary pensioners. If he thinks pensioners can live on pounds30 a week, he must be living in a remote world, an ivory tower. How does he think they can afford to live on that amount?"

Mr O’Brien said those entitled to Pension Credit could bump their weekly income up to pounds124.

Chris Grayling, the Tory pensions spokesman, said the gaffe was "more evidence of why the LibDems shouldn’t be taken seriously as a political force in Britain today".

Last night, Mr Clegg admitted he had got it "spectacularly wrong". Mr Clegg told the BBC: "I got it wrong; I got it spectacularly wrong. I was doing 11 back-to-back interviews and I had questions thrown at me and I got the figure wrong." He went on: "I’m just a human being, sometimes you just get the wrong number before the zero and I did that today. I don’t pretend to try and spin it in any way. Of course I know full well what the state pension is."

(c) 2008 Western Morning News, The Plymouth (UK). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.