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With each annual pension credit claim costing the government £3,900 a year on average, the former Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb has calculated that the total annual cost of these new claims could be about £234m.

The newly minted Lib Dem council leader, Leigh Frost, does not think so.

The two MPs have added their names to a growing list of their colleagues who have suggested they will switch sides including: Tory former minister George Freeman, Tory MPs Mike Wood and Andrew Snowden, Lib Dem Brian Matthew, Labour's Jonathan Hinder, Reform UK chief whip Lee Anderson and ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe.

Lib Dem defence spokeswoman Helen Maguire said her party welcomed the government's plan, but warned "meeting generational risks will require generational commitments".

The increase in the Sovereign Grant's value is blamed by former Lib Dem Home Office minister Norman Baker, a prominent critic of royal finances, on what he calls the "completely absurd" way it's calculated and "weak-kneed" governments that don't want to challenge it.