New Labour agree pension numbers are wrong

Downing Street has been forced to revise figures it had repeatedly used to justify the controversial deal giving public sector workers retirement at 60 with their occupational pensions.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman reverted to saying "the majority" of civil servants would now be on a new scheme retiring at 65 within ten years, rather than the 70% figure he had been using.

He said he wanted to "clarify" his comments made earlier and at previous briefings to justify the agreement.

The spokesman said that his figures of 10% of civil servants leaving their posts annually remained correct, but rather than 70% of civil servants in ten years time being on new arrangements "it will be a bit more than a decade for the majority to be on the new scheme".

The revising of the figures comes after a fraught ten days between No 10 and the Chancellor Gordon Brown over the public sector pensions deal.

The Treasury was reported to be ready to look again at the agreement while Downing Street firmly set its face against any re-negotiation.

The arcane dispute over statistics will be taken as yet another sign of Cabinet angst ahead of Wednesday's publication of the Turner Commission report, expected to recommend an extension of the state pension retirement age from 65 to 67.

No 10 had said time and again that the public sector retirement deal at 60 was comparable to 40% of private sector workers who retired in similar circumstances at the same age.

Mr Blair's spokesman had also made much of the fact that given an annual turnover of 10% of public sector workers, within ten years only 30% of public sector workers would be on a gold-plated retire-at-60 package. It was that figure he was forced to retract, revising it to roughly 50%.

But Mr Blair's spokesman stood by the deal done to allow existing civil servants to retire at 60: "This deal was done six weeks ago. This Government does not rip up deals done six weeks ago."