The Conservatives have issued a general election battlecry by promising to never abandon pensioners, unlike Labour under Andy Burnham. Shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith challenged the party to rule out any fresh attacks on OAPs in the Budget and backed the campaigning Express in fearlessly fighting for their rights.
He said: “Labour keeps coming for pensioners because it thinks they are an easy target and that it can dress up taking from one generation as fairness to another. A pensioner cannot go back to work to make up what Labour takes, yet this Government still refuses to get a grip on a working age welfare bill that is spiralling out of control, which tells you everything about its priorities.”
Concern Over Budget Targeting
The call to arms comes amid mounting concern OAPs have been left high and dry by Labour and will be further targeted in the first Budget of Andy Burnham's rule on October 28. The party attempted to axe the Winter Fuel Payment in 2024, before being forced into a humiliating U-turn, and the Prime Minister said he would end the triple lock, which guarantees the state pension keeps pace with wages every year, from 2030.
Despite the attack on OAPs he has made no attempt to rein in a welfare bill that is estimated to reach £407billion in 2030/31. That has led to fears Chancellor John Healey could launch further tax grabs when he makes his financial statement in a little over two weeks.
Conservative Promises to Pensioners
Mr Griffith said: “A Conservative government introduced the triple lock and a Conservative government will keep it, because those who have paid in all their lives deserve to know their pension is safe. We want to get Britain drilling again to bring energy bills down. We will abolish inheritance tax on the family home, because Labour thinks it is selfish to pass on what you have earned to your children and we do not.
“For those same reasons we will also scrap Labour’s death tax on family farms and family homes. Finally, we will scrap stamp duty on your home, so pensioners who want to downsize are no longer punished for it.
“We will pay for it by reforming welfare for those who can work but choose not to, not by raiding those who have already done their bit. And I challenge (John Healey) to rule out any new raid on pensioners in his Budget.
“The Express has fought for pensioners for years and I am proud to stand alongside it. Mr Burnham says he wants to fight the next election on this, and if that is the choice he wants, then bring it on.
“Britain’s pensioners have kept their side of the bargain and Labour has abandoned them, but the Conservatives never will.”
Election Speculation and Pensioner Impact
The unequivocal backing will be music to the ears of the 13.2 million people in receipt of the State Pension - a number collectively making up one fifth of the electorate. It comes as the Tories have been placed on an election footing with speculation mounting the PM is poised to call a snap poll.
Mr Burnham last month said there will be “no election any time soon” but with the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats imploding there are fears Labour will go to the country, potentially before Christmas. Mr Griffith said if the PM wants a scrap centering over how the legs have been cut from OAPs, then “bring it on”. Labour might see them as an expendable demographic but like the campaigning Express Mr Griffith said his party would unapologetically fight for retirees.
The triple lock was introduced in 2011 by the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government to overcome increased pensioner poverty caused by tying state pensions only to prices. In 1979, the state pension was worth 26% of average earnings, but the link with wages was cut in 1980 and before the triple lock plunged to 16% of average earnings. The mechanism reversed the fall and the full new state pension - £241.30 a week or £12,547.60 a year - is equal to roughly 30% of median full-time pay.
In one of its first acts after winning the 2024 general election Labour axed annual cold weather cash payments, saying only those in receipt of Pension Credit would get it. It meant that instead of cash being automatically paid to 10.8million pensioners in England and Wales the number of recipients was slashed to 1.5million. Despite an outcry the lump sum, introduced by former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and given to all pensioners since 1997, was scrapped and only those passing a humiliating means-test were able to qualify.
The move sparked national outrage but it was only after pressure from the Express that former Chancellor Rachel Reeves was forced to make a chastening about-turn. The tax-free government grant of £200 per household, or £300 per household where there is someone over 80, is made automatically to around 9million OAPs. The Express has long fought to protect the triple lock which sees the state pension increase each April by the highest of inflation, 2.5% or average earnings.
Even Labour backbencher Neil Duncan-Jordan and Unite, Britain’s biggest union, agree the party is unfairly targeting pensioners. Mr Duncan-Jordan said the PM’s triple lock proposal could be as “politically unpopular as Starmer’s winter fuel debacle” saying: “Commentators across the political class often reach for what they think is such low-hanging fruit and decry the triple lock as some unnecessary, extravagant expenditure that simply props up wealthy pensioners who spend all their time on lavish cruises. The reality is somewhat different.”
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, Labour’s largest union backer, said removing the pension triple lock would penalise the “poorest in society”. She said: “Going to a group of people who are getting around £12,500 a year, in order to pay for it, to take their security from them, is wrong. I think it’s morally wrong. We need to look at other ways. And I can’t understand why we keep going to the well of the poorest in society as a Labour government. Why are we doing that instead of taxing the rich in our society?”
TaxPayers’ Alliance Chief executive John O’Connell said: “Taxpayers are being asked to carry a welfare state growing far faster than their pay. In hundreds of constituencies, the benefits bill is spiralling out of control. Taxpayers in some places are even seeing wages fall as welfare spending surges around them. Ministers need to stop pretending this is sustainable and get the benefits bill under control for the sake of taxpayers.”
The Treasury was contacted for comment.
