Starmer urged to make a decision on triple lock

Sir Keir Starmer (Image: Getty) Sir Keir Starmer has been told older voters will not forgive him if he sits on the fence over the triple lock. The Labour leader refused to commit to protecting the pensions formula that guarantees pensions increase at a decent rate if he wins the election. It comes as our crusade with Silver Voices calling on the government to honour the lock when it calculates April’s rise was backed by 15,000 people in just 24 hours. Dennis Reed, director of the campaign group, warned Sir Keir against betraying older voters. He said: ‘We are very surprised that the official Opposition has not come out strongly in favour of sticking with the triple lock this year; nor has it called out the Tories for considering diluting the formula. ‘Older people value honesty, and fence-sitting on this important issue of principle is not good enough. ‘We remember when the Government suspended the triple lock two years ago and Labour instructed its MPs to abstain in the initial parliamentary vote. ‘If this happened again it would amount to betrayal by Labour too. ‘We urge Keir Starmer and his front bench to fight with us for the future of the triple lock.’ Under the triple lock, pensions increase every year by inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent, whichever is highest. Sir Keir dodged calls to back the pledge, saying only there would be a ‘fair and decent pension’ if he becomes prime minister. He said: ‘I’m not going to set out our plans for after the election. ‘What I will say is this: it was this Government that made the commitment in relation to the triple lock. ‘It’s this Government that ought to keep the commitment that they’ve made, and it’s this Government that’s introduced the doubt now about the triple lock by suggesting that they’re not going to keep their pledge. ‘So that’s, I think, the most central issue for pensioners. But will pensioners have a decent and fair pension under a Labour government? Of course they will.’ Union bosses have called Sir Keir a ’90s tribute act’ following Sir Tony Blair’s lead. Jacob-Rees Mogg criticised the triple lock formula (Image: Getty) The Labour leader said his critics ‘are not focusing on the future, they’re focusing on the past’. ‘We are looking at the challenge of the next general election. But I remind myself that in the late 1990s we had a landslide Labour government and I want to see a Labour government back in power as soon as possible.’ He added: ‘I’m not predicting a landslide. I remind myself every day that for the Labour Party to get from where it landed in 2019 to even a slender majority at the next general election would require a bigger swing than we had in 1997. ‘That’s the scale of the task that we face.’ Both Labour and the Conservatives are refusing to commit to including the triple lock in their general election manifestos. But the formula also faces being changed in the next few weeks to save the government £600 million. Rishi Sunak suspended the formula two years ago after a quirk caused by the covid crisis meant average earnings shot up. Instead, the state pension went up by 3.1 per cent. The Prime Minister is now considering altering the way the link to average earnings works. Pensioners would be handed an 8.5 per cent increase if the calculation is carried out in the same way it always has been since the lock was introduced. But the Treasury is looking at whether to strip out the impact of public sector bonuses, which would reduce next April’s rise to 7.8 per cent. Campaigners have warned the government against ‘underhand’ tactics to get out of meeting the full guarantee to pensioners. Another former senior Tory called for the lock to be scrapped and April’s increase calculated at the lower rate. Lord Hague, ex Treasury aide Rupert Harrison and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg have all criticised the formula this week. In the left-wing New Statesman, former justice secretary David Gauke said he could see why both main parties are refusing to commit to its future. The ex-Cabinet minister said: ‘If one party were to announce that it is to be scrapped, the other would make it a centre piece of their campaign. Pensioners vote, after all. ‘That is why William Hague has suggested that the two parties ‘help each other out’ and find a way to drop the policy. ‘There is a more immediate challenge. Tuesday’s earnings figures mean that the state pension might be expected to increase by 8.5 per cent next April. Some of that £2bn cost – £600-700m – is because of the public sector bonus. ‘Including this impact would embed a one-off effect in the state pension on a permanent basis. ‘Ministers should use the underlying earnings figure of 7.8 per cent, stripping out the extraordinary effects of the public sector pay settlement. There is not yet sufficient awareness of the fiscal hole that we are in. To get out of it, we will need policies on growth, tax and spending that will be unpopular with many. Scrapping the triple lock has to be one of them.’ Sign the petition at https://www.change.org/stick-with-the-triple-lock