Lansley's letter pours fuel on Labour's bonfire

Just when everyone is all afroth about the murky connections between the political class and the media, a letter by Andrew Lansley to Danny Alexander has mysteriously leaked to the Telegraph. It was sent two months ago, and it concerns the government’s public sector pension proposals. For five pages, Lansley riffs on about why the reforms may not be such a good idea, particularly when it comes to NHS workers. “We face a real risk, if we push too hard,” he says, “of industrial action involving staff groups delivering key public services.” He suggests that lower and higher paid staff may just opt-out of the pensions scheme altogether, leaving the Exchequer with “reduced receipts in the short term while still having to pay for past pension promises.” And he dwells, in particular, on the effect all this might have on women:

“In the NHS currently, the average full time career for those taking a pension is only 18 years and it seems unrealistic to suggest that pension scheme design should be based on the assumption that a predominantly female workforce would need to work full time 48 year careers in future to receive a full pension. It is also difficult to see how this meets our commitment to maintain gold standard pensions.”

Natually, Lansley’s department is putting it about that his concerns are old news, and that the coalition’s final reforms have assuaged them, in any case. But this leaked letter may still come with consequences attached. For starters, this will no doubt intesify the fug of speculation that surrounds our Health Secretary and his career prospects. And then there’s the fact that this is another story to fuel, for instance, Yvette Cooper’s claim that the coalition is laying much of its fiscal buden on the backs of women. For its part, the coalition has recently suggested that it will introduce transitional arrangements to ensure that female public sector workers don’t unduly lose out from the pension changes. But, with the new rules about equality and policy formulation hovering in the background, don’t expect the matter to end there.