Former Tory chairman Richard Holden has accused Sir Keir Starmer of U-turning on a pre-election pledge to scrap a pensions tax break for high earners.

The Prime Minister had pledged to reverse a Tory Government proposal to end the £1million cap on lifetime pensions savings.

He was accused of hypocrisy by the Conservatives at the time when it emerged he was set to benefit from a similar scheme himself.

Sir Keir was granted a special “tax unregistered” pension scheme when he stood down as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in 2013.

This led Mr Holden to ask a parliamentary question on the matter.

He contacted the Treasury “to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if she will take steps to repeal the Pensions Increase (Pension Scheme for Sir Keir Starmer QC.”

In the response, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said: “The 2013 regulations were introduced to ensure the Director of Public Prosecutions’ pension scheme is uprated in line with other public service pension schemes.

“There are no plans to repeal the regulation.”

Mr Holden took to X, formerly Twitter, to slam the reversal.

The Tory, who resigned as chairman of the party earlier this month, said: “Sir Keir Starmer has (surprise, surprise) U-turned on his pledge to scrap his own special tax perk!”

In March, Sir Keir said he had not taken advantage of the perk and did not want to.

Sir Keir said it was “a government pension scheme put in place for DPPs”, which was why it needed an act of parliament to bring it into effect.

The Pensions Increase (Pension Scheme for Keir Starmer QC) Regulations 2013 means the lifetime allowance does not apply to Sir Keir’s contributions from his time as DPP between 2008 and 2013.

The legislation means Sir Keir would be exempt from paying additional tax on pensions savings over £1 million.

But Sir Keir insisted he had not taken advantage of the tax break, adding: “Nor do I want to.”

Under the pensions lifetime allowance, pension pots over £1.07 milliom faced an annual tax of £40,000 on average.

The cap was scrapped in April by then Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.