As part of this change, derived entitlement to the basic state pension - where someone receives a married person's pension or a widow's or widower's pension based not on their own working life but the National Insurance record of their spouse or civil partner - will also go.

BBC: Finance

The change involves merging the state second pension with the basic state pension.

BBC: Finance

Still, there has always been enough of a Tory radical about Mr Major to prevent his administration becoming a no-change government, a trait illustrated by its breathtaking decision this month to propose the privatisation of the basic state pension.

ECONOMIST: John Major