Higher rate tax relief on pensions to stay

In the House of Commons she repeated Treasury statements that 'no proposal for the abolition of higher-rate tax reliefs has even been considered by Treasury Ministers, never mind agreed.'

But Kelly omitted to give the same assurance concerning reports that the tax-free status of lump sum payments on retirement is under threat.

Kelly insisted huge cuts in corporation tax have offset the £5bn a year cost to pension funds of advanced corporation tax relief and said what matters is the level of pension contributions.