Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox
Get our free View from Westminster email
Get our free View from Westminster email
Kemi Badenoch has been accused of “putting pensioners on notice” after appearing to suggest the Tories would look at means testing the pensions triple lock.
The triple lock ensures state pensions rise by whichever is highest out of the rate of inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent. Currently, it is available to all pensioners, regardless of income or savings.
During a phone-in session on LBC on Thursday evening, the leader of the opposition was asked why certain people benefit from the policy when, the caller claimed, they do not need it.
Ms Badenoch responded by saying that was the kind of policy she wanted to “look at”.
When pressed by host Iain Dale if she meant she wanted to look at changing the triple-lock system, the opposition leader responded: “No, we are going to look at means-testing. Means-testing is something which we don’t do properly here.”
Means testing is a financial assessment that determines if someone is eligible for a benefit based on income or capital.
Ms Badenoch went on to criticise the government’s new policy of means-testing the winter fuel payment.
“I have always said, for example, that millionaires should not be getting the winter fuel payment,” Ms Badenoch said.
“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 that we need to be looking at.”
She pointed out the triple-lock policy was something the Tories supported throughout its 14 years in government after it was enacted by David Cameron in 2010, but “we need to make sure we are growing”.
The Conservative Party leader added: “Starting with the triple-lock is not how to solve the problem. We need to start with, why are we not making the same kind of money we used to make?
“I tell people we’ve started living off our inheritance, we’re living off the work that previous generations did.
“We’ve got to give something to the next generation. What are we leaving them with? That’s what we’ve got to sort out.
“We can’t just make ourselves comfortable now spending their future. We need to give them a future.”
On Friday, the Tory leader said that she did not intend to means test the triple lock and claims reports to the contrary – based on her own interview – were “fake news”.
It comes after a speech on Thursday in which Ms Badenoch admitted to a series of mistakes previous Conservative governments had made and accused Labour of repeating the same errors.
A Labour Party spokesperson criticised Ms Badenoch’s comments, claiming she had suggested the Tories were planning to cut state pensions. This would be a major policy shift for the party.
They said: “Kemi Badenoch has put pensioners on notice – she’s going to cut your state pension.
“The Labour government has taken tough action to clean up the mess the Tories left our economy in, meaning we can guarantee a £470 cash boost for pensioners in April.
“The Tories have let the mask slip though and are happy to leave pensioners worse off. Yet again, the Conservatives haven’t listened and they haven’t learned.”
But the Tories hit back and accused the Labour Party of “fake news”.
A Conservative Party headquarters spokesperson said: “The Labour Party is skewing her words for political gain and lying about what she said. We will look at means testing. But the Conservatives have always protected the triple lock. Ignore the fake news! Read the transcript.”
A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, part of the coalition that introduced the triple-lock system, said: “Bungling Badenoch has finally come up with her first new policy, slashing the state pension.
“The Liberal Democrats are proud we introduced the triple-lock and will fight tooth and nail against Conservative attempts to weaken it.”
The party called on Ms Badenoch to “urgently clarify” what she meant by her remarks.
Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride, however, recently said the triple-lock was “unsustainable”.
Source: independent.co.uk
