Badenoch admits reversing Burnham’s pension reforms could be ‘difficult’

Kemi Badenoch has refused to guarantee that a future Conservative government would reverse Labour’s planned changes to the pension triple lock, warning that doing so could prove “difficult” if the money has already been committed to a new social care service.

The Conservative leader said the triple lock remained party policy, but declined to promise that legislation changing the system would automatically be repealed if the Conservatives returned to power.

Andy Burnham’s government has announced that the existing triple lock will remain in place until April 2030. From then, the state pension will rise by at least inflation or 2.5 per cent, with an additional mechanism designed to ensure pensioners continue to benefit from growth in average earnings over time.

The government intends to use savings from the adjusted system to help fund a new National Care Service, which is due to be introduced in phases. Official estimates put the reduction in state pension spending at £15bn a year by the end of the 2030s, rising to £50bn by 2050.

Asked whether the Conservatives would reverse the reform if they returned to office, Badenoch said: “I have said that the triple lock is our policy and it remains our policy.”

She added that she did not believe pensioners should be targeted when there were people who could work but were not doing so.

But Badenoch qualified her commitment, saying: “I have said that we are keeping this policy, but if they take that money and they spend it on something that we can’t get it back from, then it would be difficult for me.”

She said she would not make promises simply to win votes.

“What I’m not going to do is lie to your listeners just so I can get votes. I tell the truth and I say the triple lock is our policy and we’re keeping it.”

Her comments expose a political and fiscal dilemma for the Conservatives. The triple lock has become a central guarantee of pensioner incomes, but restoring the existing system after Labour has redirected savings towards permanent spending on social care could leave any future government facing a substantial funding choice.

Badenoch concluded: “What I’m not going to do is to say something when I don’t know what the situation would be about what Labour has done with that money. We have to be very careful.”