Burnham set to signal end of triple lock in conference speech
Andy Burnham is set to signal the end of the triple lock on pensions in his maiden conference speech as Prime Minister, in a move that is likely to divide the Labour party.
In his maiden conference speech as Labour leader, Burnham will suggest the policy is not sustainable in its current form and should be reviewed in the party’s next manifesto, the Telegraph first reported.
The prime minister is under pressure to ditch the policy, in which the state pension rises by the highest of inflation, wages or 2.5 per cent, to fund his social care plans. Burnham has already suggested “nothing was off the table” when it came to finding the anticipated £18bn annual costs for a mooted new national care service.
The cost of the state pension will balloon by more than £15bn per year by 2030 if left unchanged, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Burnham is expected to pledge to have an honest conversation with voters over the “difficult issues” he claims Westminster has ignored for too long.
“Hope comes from honesty and from saying the things politicians usually avoid,” Burnham will say. “We can’t carry on as we are. Politics-as-usual has taken Britain backwards. More of the same isn’t good enough.”
Labour split
But the issue has caused deep splits among Labour’s senior figurers and cabinet ministers.
Burnham has been warned by one of the UK’s largest and most influential unions that scrapping the triple lock would be “electoral suicide”.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite the union, said: “I think it would almost be electoral suicide. Morally, I don’t think it’s the right thing.
“I think it would be an absolute disaster, it would send completely the wrong message.”
Burnham’s cabinet also appears to be divided on the issue. Secretary of state for Scotland, Douglas Alexander, told Times Radio that young people are getting “a really raw deal” but Bridget Phillipson, the minster for women and equalities, warned ending the mechanism could bring about “intergenerational warfare”.
Chancellor John Healey did not rule out changes to the policy when asked on Monday, telling ITV News on Monday that the “prime minister has got more to say tomorrow”.
Housing secretary Angela Rayner, hailed Burnham as “brave” to start the conservation on the triple lock.
Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I think he’s absolutely right to start the conversation.
“We’ve got a prime minister who said, I’m I am okay with burning through all my political capital to the point where it might finish me off, on the basis of my legacy will be something better and different.”
Public control
Burnham will also double down on his plans to seize greater public control of energy, water and housing alongside addressing the problems of youth unemployment.
He will say he wants to make a “break with the flawed thinking of the past 40 years”, adding he believes the country is being run “for vested interest, not in the public interest”.
Burnham will also announce a “raft of policies and commitments that will bring hope again to Britain”.
“I accept people will not agree with every part of it, but I believe it can turn Britain around,” he will say.