Brown faces no confidence vote

Chancellor Gordon Brown is facing a no confidence vote over his handling of occupational pensions.

Labour's majority should enable Mr Brown to comfortably survive the vote on a motion tabled by the Conservatives.

The debate surrounds Mr Brown's decision to scrap tax relief on pension funds at the 1997 Budget.

Controversy arose after the recent release of Treasury documents under the Freedom of Information Act, which sparked claims that Mr Brown ignored the advice of officials when he abolished the relief - a claim the Treasury denies.

It is highly unusual for opposition parties to table no confidence motions against individual ministers in this way, but the Tories seem determined to focus attention on a subject that makes the Chancellor appear vulnerable.

"This is Gordon Brown's chance to explain why he sought to hide the dangers of his reckless raid on pensioners' savings," said shadow chancellor George Osborne.

"After the revelations about the raid, how can anyone have confidence in his judgement? We shall see if the Chancellor has the political courage to apologise to the millions of pensioners affected."

The Treasury confirmed that Mr Brown would be responding to the Tory motion.

The abolition of the tax relief has been widely blamed for the sharp decline in occupational pension funds - something the Treasury strongly denies.

The Conservatives have also said that they will be tabling an amendment to the Government's Pensions Bill when it returns to the Commons tomorrow to help those who have lost occupational pensions since 1997.

The Tory plan would establish a "lifeboat fund" to top up the incomes of the worst-hit people.

In the long-term the Conservatives said that the fund would be financed by collecting unclaimed pension fund assets from within the pensions system, although in the short term they would use Treasury loans to get the cash flowing.

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