Inflation-linked salary rises for the working population are not easily replicated for older adults, who “can’t go along to the pension payer and say: ‘Inflation’s gone up to five per cent, can I have five per cent more please?'”, he said.

While the state pension is protected by a “lock” that means it rises by at least the rate of inflation each year, many supplementary pensions and savings are not linked to inflation.

Sir Peter said: “If pensioners face inflation at two per cent, they will lose half their spending power in about 35 years. If inflation is five per cent, they lose half their spending power in 15 years.” Inflation rose to 5.1 per cent this month.

The Worthing West MP added that “it has a dramatic impact on pensioners if we get back into the wage inflation spiral that we had in the 70s and part of the 80s – if that spiral is allowed to develop, it eventually becomes ruinous for people in work, but it’s certainly ruinous for people on fixed retirement incomes”.

He said that if workers accepted “restraint” in pay rises, “inflation will come down much faster and we’ll become better off much faster and for much longer”, saying that controlling inflation was in the interests of all age groups.

The Tory MP sparked controversy in October when he said living on a parliamentarian’s £82,000 salary was “really grim” and argued that their pay should be the same level as professionals such as GPs, whose average salary is £100,700.

Earlier on Thursday, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he believed the planned rise in National Insurance should go ahead despite opposition from fellow Conservatives concerned about rising living costs.