Tory divisions over the pensions triple lock flared after a senior MP said the party should stop defending it if they want to gain support from young people. Tom Tugendhat compared the UK economy to a “Ponzi system” as he reignited the debate over the benefit.
But another senior Tory, a key ally of leader Kemi Badenoch, told the Daily Express that policy is safe. “We’d be mad to get rid of it, you can’t just take it away from people.”
His remarks came after both Mrs Badenoch and shadow Chancellor Mel Stride both told this newspaper that the party “remains committed” to the policy which was introduced by the Tories in 2011.
Under the triple lock, the state pension is uprated each April in line with whichever is highest out of 2.5%, inflation or earnings growth.
Labour have said they will keep it while Nigel Farage has been non-committal as to whether his Reform UK party will follow suit.
Speaking during a fringe event at the party conference in Manchester on Monday Mr Tugendhat argued that the economy and politics were too geared towards older people, saying a refusal to deal with this was driving young people towards parties that are “revolutionising” the system.
He said: “This is a logical series of outcomes for an economic system that has effectively become a Ponzi system for the old.
“That is what people are choosing against, and that is the revolution that we are seeing in politics.”
He added that the impact of this system was visible in the way “we are still defending the triple lock when it is simply not sustainable over the next 20 or 30 years in a way that means it is in any way applicable to anybody under the age of 50.”
Earlier this year, the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that the triple lock, which sees pensions rise by whichever is higher of 2%, inflation or average earnings, meant pension costs would become unsustainable over the longer term.
And the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank has warned during the Conservative conference that age-related costs such as the triple lock were the “elephant in the room” when it came to getting public spending under control.
Speaking at a Daily Express fringe event at the conference on Sunday, Dennis Reed, director of the Silver Voices campaign group for the over 60s, said the triple lock is the “lifeblood” of the state pension system.
