Labour's deputy leader Lucy Powell faced a difficult grilling over the triple lock in an awkward Sky News interview this morning. She refused to say whether the party could drop the policy, which ensures the state pension rises by at least 2.5% a year, amid speculation that Andy Burnham could axe it to fund his social care overhaul.
Question Dodged
Asked if she thought it was time to scrap the triple lock, Ms Powell began discussing Mr Burnham's upcoming speech to Labour's conference, saying it would be "talking about those long-term challenges and how we need to fix them".
She added: "And I think that's really refreshing because people keep voting for big change, they want big change, and they've not really been getting big change that the country needs."
Host's Challenge
Host Sophy Ridge then interjected: "Did you hear what the question was? It was about the triple lock."
Ms Powell responded: "We are committed to the triple lock. It's in our manifesto. The triple lock has really delivered for pensioners in this country over the course of this Parliament."
Pension Security
She continued: "I think we're going to see (the) state pension rising by about £2,000-a-year significantly, and that's really important, so pensioners watching your show today can know that their income is secure and will continue to rise over the course of this Parliament."
Ms Powell added: "I don't know what Andy's going to say about that today, but I know that what he's talking about is this big conversation about solving these big problems, but being really honest with people that they come at a cost. They do come at a cost. You can't just solve the social care crisis without having the big conversations about how you're going to do this."
Mr Burnham has committed to Labour's manifesto pledge to keep the triple lock for the current Parliament.
