The Conservative leader said yesterday that the party would consider means-testing the triple lock in a major policy shift – but do Express readers think it’s the right move for the Tories?

State pensions rise yearly under the policy by whichever is highest out of 2.5%, inflation or earnings – but Kemi Badenoch said she could overturn her party’s support of the system to “make sure we are growing”.

Ms Badenoch, whose shadow chancellor Mel Stride has slammed the triple lock as “unsustainable”, told LBC that she wanted to “look at means-testing” scheme. She added: “Means testing is something which we don’t do properly here.

“I always said, for example, that millionaires should not be getting the winter fuel payment.

“But what Rachel Reeves has done is the extreme version of that, where people who are actually on the breadline have had their winter fuel payment taken away.

“We don’t have a system that knows who should get what. That’s the sort of thing we need to be looking at.”

The comments quickly came under fire from Ms Badenoch’s political opponents, with Labour accusing the Tory Party leader of “putting pensioners on notice” and the Liberal Democrats dubbing her “Bungling Badenoch”.

Most Popular Comments

“When a country has to look at describing taking things off pensioners to gain growth they are sadly on wrong path. I’m not a pensioner, no where …” 82

“I am 71 years old paid into the pension scheme and graduate pension along with …” 43

“From the above segment on Pensions and Triple Lock – quote “Mr Bell claimed that …” 30

JOIN THE DEBATE

“Kemi Badenoch has put pensioners on notice – she’s going to cut your state pension,” a Labour spokesperson said. “The Tories have let the mask slip through and are happy to leave pensioners worse off. Yet again, the Conservatives haven’t listened and they haven’t learned.”

Deputy Lib Dem leader Daisy May Cooper added: “Bungling Badenoch has finally come up with her first new policy, slashing the state pension.

“The Conservatives urgently need to clarify what she meant and how many pensioners would lose out,” she said. “The Liberal Democrats are proud we introduced the triple-lock and will fight tooth and nail against Conservative attempts to weaken it.”

However, Labour has also come under fire for being “anti-pensioner” after the Prime Minister appointed former think tank chief Torsten Bell as the new pensions minister despite his previous calls for the triple lock to be abolished.

Mr Bell claimed that pensioner benefits were rising faster than those offered to working-age people and wrote on the social media platform X that the “triple lock needs sorting.”