Kemi Badenoch has firmly defended the triple lock pension guarantee, calling it the “right policy” ahead of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham this weekend.
Badenoch insisted the triple lock, which ensures the state pension rises by whichever is highest out of inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent, properly rewards pensioners who have “contributed” throughout their working lives.
Her comments come despite widespread criticism from economists across the political spectrum, who have long warned the policy is “unsustainable” over the long term.
The concern centres on a “ratcheting” effect that sees the state pension outpace wage growth significantly, leaving public finances increasingly exposed to pressure.
Badenoch was responding in part to now-frontbencher Katie Lam, whose views on the triple lock were revealed in a leaked recording from the summer.
Lam, who serves as shadow communities secretary, said in that recording that what the country would “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, sparking fresh divisions within the party.
Badenoch moved swiftly to distance the party from those remarks, stating clearly: “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,” she added.
The issue has been further complicated by Labour’s own repositioning on the triple lock, with Andy Burnham last week announcing Labour would fight the next election on a promise to reform the mechanism so that it rose by 2.5 per cent or inflation each year, levelling with earnings growth over the long term.
Former Brexit minister Steve Baker added to the internal Conservative tension by criticising his own party over an advertisement claiming Labour would “cut” the pension, noting that Burnham’s policy still ensures the state pension rises each year.
Shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith also attracted attention after a 2021 Conservative Home article resurfaced in which he described the triple lock as “unfair” because 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,” Griffith wrote at the time.
Several other former Tory frontbenchers have also privately attacked the triple lock pension in recent months, signalling that internal unease runs deeper than publicly acknowledged.
Alongside the pension debate, Badenoch used the conference to unveil a new intellectual paper titled “The Right Way,” a deliberate nod to Margaret Thatcher’s “The Right Approach,” setting out Conservative principles around wealth creation, freedom, responsibility, abiding by the law, and individual liberty.
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.”