Badenoch says triple lock pension is ‘right policy’ as new Tory blueprint announced

Kemi Badenoch has defended the triple lock pension as the “right policy” ahead of the Conservatives’ party conference this weekend. 

Badenoch said the triple lock, which is widely condemned as “unsustainable” across the political spectrum, ensured pensioners who had “contributed” were properly rewarded.

The triple lock pension ensures that the state pension rises by whichever is highest out of inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent. 

Economists from across the political divide have warned that the “ratcheting” effect that sees the state pension far outpace wage growth in the long term left public finances exposed. 

Last week, Andy Burnham said Labour would fight the next election on a promise to reform the triple lock pension so that it rose by 2.5 per cent or inflation each year and levelled with earnings growth over the long term. 

In interviews on Sunday, Badenoch responded to claims by now-frontbencher Katie Lam, who said in a leaked recording from the summer that the triple lock would have to be abandoned. 

Badenoch said: “The triple lock is our policy. We believe that this is the right policy for pensioners.

“That is what we have planned. That is what we have promised. There is nothing that has happened that has made me change my mind. That is our policy.”

Lam, who is the shadow communities secretary, said what the country would “l need in the end is an entirely new pension system”. 

“I just think the whole system as it stands can’t stand for very much longer,” Lam said in the leaked recording. 

Triple lock split

Burnham’s new pension policy has split the Tories. Former Brexit minister Steve Baker hit out at the party over an advertisement claiming that Labour would “cut” the pension. Burnham’s policy ensures that the state pension continues to rise each year. 

In 2021, shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith, who was then a backbencher, wrote an article saying that the state pension triple lock was “unfair” as pensioners could “gain from the misfortune of others”. 

“I hope that we can build consensus on what should not really be a subject of controversy but a sensible and pragmatic response to post pandemic management of the economy,” he wrote in Conservative Home. 

Several other former Tory frontbenchers have also privately attacked the triple lock pension in recent months.

Heading to Birmingham for the Conservative Party conference, Badenoch unveiled a new intellectual paper that would set out “Conservative principles”.

The paper, titled ‘The Right Way’ in a nod to Margaret Thatcher’s ‘The Right Approach’, set out principles of wealth creation, freedom and responsibility, abiding by the law, and individual liberty.

The Tory leader said governments should be judged on actions rather than

Badenoch said: “We promised lower immigration without a strategy for delivering it. Net zero was legislated for before we had an economically feasible route to get there. We left the European Union without the economic plan that should have gone with it. The path to failure was paved with announcements, targets and good intentions.”