British Labour party today wooed the grey vote in the upcoming election with a promise to raise pensions, keep TV licences free for over-75s and maintain a winter fuel allowance for the elderly.
"We'll carry on with a decent rise in the basic state pension, not just this year but next year as well, British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair told residents of an old folks home in Nottingham today.
"We can do these things if we keep our economy strong, he said of his pledge to achieve pensioner prosperity in a second Labour term," he said.
But it was the Prime Minister’s wife Cherie who stole the show. Joining husband on the campaign trail, she joined the residents in a sing-along of golden oldies.
Earlier today, Security Minister Mr Alistair Darling told journalists that in Labour's manifesto, due to be unveiled next week, the party would pledge to not only raise the basic state pension, but would maintain free TV licences for the elderly and a 200 pound winter fuel allowance.
The opposition Conservatives slammed the pledges, saying Labour's stealth taxes would undermine the independence of pensioners.
"Pensioners...have not forgotten the 75p pension rise, the stealth tax on pension funds and the push towards means-testing," Mr Tory MP David Willets said.
Meanwhile Conservative party leader, Mr William Hague, faced fresh questions over his leadership today after a senior Tory MP, Sir Peter Tapsell, made an outspoken attack on Germany and the euro.
The statements prompted Labour and the Liberal Democrats renewed their claims that Mr Hague had lost control of the Conservative Party.
In what has been described as an "outburst", MP Mr Tapsell - who nominated Mr Hague for the Tory leadership - compared German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroeder's vision of Europe to Adolf Hitler's.
He also said Britain should never join the single European currency in defiance of party policy ruling membership in the lifetime of the next parliament.
Mr Hague distanced himself from the remarks, made to Mr Tapsell's Louth and Horncastle constituency party in Lincolnshire.
In reaction Chancellor Mr Gordon Brown said: "This is an issue of leadership ... The Tories are divided on the single currency between those who would rule it out only for a parliament and those who would rule it out forever."
While Liberal Democrats' leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, said a "Parliamentarian of very considerable experience" should know better than to compare a democratically elected leader to Hitler.
But Shadow cabinet office minister Mr Andrew Lansley stressed Mr Tapsell's views were his own and were not shared by the party leadership, saying the policy of Mr Hague and the Conservative Party is to "keep the pound".
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