Keir Starmer has vowed to protect the pensions triple lock (Image: Getty)
Keir Starmer has given an election guarantee to protect the pensions triple lock if he becomes Prime Minister.
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The Labour leader will put a cast-iron pledge of a decent rise for all pensioners at the heart of his manifesto.
It is the clearest sign yet that the two main parties will be locked in a fierce battle for the support of older voters. Sir Keir fires the opening salvo today by announcing in the Sunday Express that he will keep the triple lock for at least five years.
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It guarantees the state pension will rise in line with inflation, average wage rises or by 2.5 per cent – whichever is highest.
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Starmer's pledge would mean the State Pension would rise in line with inflation (Image: Getty)
Writing exclusively in today’s paper, Sir Keir says: “Britain’s pensioners deserve better. They deserve certainty, and for politicians to be straight with them so they can plan their lives pensioners deserve better. They deserve certainty – and for politicians to be straight with them so they can plan their lives. That’s why I’m guaranteeing the pensions triple lock will be in the Labour manifesto and protected for the duration of the next parliament.”
Sir Keir’s commitment comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s promise the Tory manifesto will also commit to keeping the lock.
Today’s move underlines the Labour leader’s determination to steer older voters away from the Tories as he strives to cement his party’s polls lead.
The 75-plus age group is the only one in which more people support the Conservatives than Labour, according to the latest WeThink poll.
Crucially, older voters are more likely to turn out on polling day than younger people. And in a message aimed directly at the grey vote, Sir Keir adds: “We will never play fast and loose with your finances. We will never leave you in limbo.”
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His commitment follows Labour moves likely to appeal to more conservative voters. These include:
● Saluting Margaret Thatcher for
trying to “drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism”
● Ruling out a return to the EU’s single market or customs union
● Saying the UK’s commitment to nuclear weapons is “unshakeable”. The triple lock resulted in the new flat-rate state pension going up from ￡203.85 to ￡221.20 a week last month, with the basic state pension also rising by 8.5 per cent, from ￡156.20 to ￡169.50.
The pensions bill hit ￡110.5billion in 2022-23 – nearly half of government spending on benefits – and it is forecast to reach ￡124billion in 2023-24. There were 12.6 million people receiving the state pension in February last year.
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But Sir Keir insisted Britain can cover the cost, saying: “I reject the arguments of those who say the triple lock needs to go because we can no longer afford to protect pensioners.”
Former Tory Foreign Secretary Lord Hague argued in September that the pensioners’ deal is “ultimately unsustainable”, claiming it is “growing by more than anything that can pay for it — wages or prices, or taxes, or the size of the economy”.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that “retaining the triple lock for too long increases pension spending so significantly it leads to insurmountable pressure for a much higher pension age”. It added this would “particularly affect people with poorer health who struggle to remain in employment until they reach state pension age”.
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