Lib Dem MPs criticise Davey over pension triple lock

Under the triple lock, the UK state pension rises each year by whichever is highest: inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5%. Andy Burnham has proposed ending the automatic earnings link from 2030, while keeping a minimum rise of inflation or 2.5%, whichever is higher. Burnham hopes the change would raise £15bn a year by the end of the 2030s. [1]

Davey told the BBC that removing the triple lock would put more pensioners into poverty. He also argued that millennials would have very poor pensions when they retire. His warning drew criticism from Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, who called Davey’s response to Burnham’s proposal “nonsense”. Vikki Slade, the party’s MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, argued that the triple lock should not be retained simply because it had served a purpose in the past. [1]

An unnamed Liberal Democrat MP told the BBC that most of the party’s MPs would not support opposing Burnham’s change. The BBC also reported private criticism from senior party frontbenchers. Some senior Liberal Democrats said they considered Davey’s leadership vulnerable, but that no challenge was imminent. [1]