Tories’ triple lock trouble

‘Andy Burnham wants to scrap the triple lock. Help us fight him.’ So reads the Tory party’s new ‘protect pensioners’ survey. But it just so happens that a number of senior figures within the Conservative party have also openly questioned the triple lock pension policy – and an awful lot more have privately gone further.

Mr S notes that less than a year ago Tom Tugendhat, now the shadow foreign secretary, was challenging Reform’s Richard Tice to agree in the Commons that ‘the triple lock is simply not affordable’.

In the same debate, Tugendhat said he would ‘be honest’ and ‘lay it on the line’: ‘The demographics of this country are going against us. We do not have enough young people for an ageing population. That means, I am afraid, that we do need to look at the triple lock. I know that those on my party’s Front Bench do not agree with me, but I have been clear that we simply cannot afford the level of welfare payments we are making.’

Now that he is a member of that very same front bench will Tugendhat continue to ‘be honest’ and ‘lay it on the line’? He is right that others in the shadow cabinet do not agree with him, at least publicly. Mr S has heard a number in private share similar remarks.

Perhaps the party could learn from the father of the house, Conservative MP Edward Leigh: ‘I am sorry not to be party political, but can we not have a consensus between the parties that we should phase out the triple lock, concentrate resources on pensioners in real poverty and have an agreement on dealing with benefits generally to get people back into work? We should work together.’