Burnham plans to pass law scrapping pension triple lock before next election

Guarantee will remain until 2030 but MPs will vote on changes during this parliament, government says

Andy Burnham plans to pass legislation to scrap the state pension triple lock in this parliament, even though the guarantee will remain until 2030, the government has said.

In future, the earnings element will be adjusted to avoid much larger pension increases in years when wages spike.

In his speech, Burnham said the triple lock would remain in place until 2030 – after the next election – keeping Labour’s manifesto promise to retain the guarantee.

It means parties will go into the next election setting out in their manifestos whether to retain Labour’s changes or repeal them if they win power.

However, the Resolution Foundation said on Friday that it was extremely difficult to estimate the savings, with figures ranging from nothing to about £24bn a year depending on which recent decade was used as a model.

“Over the longer term, which will most likely deliver some mixture of all of these economic realities, the new mechanism should trend closer to earnings.

Since it was announced, the policy has been criticised by the Conservatives, Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats – although some Tory and Lib Dem MPs are unhappy with their leaders for campaigning to retain a policy they believe is too costly.

However, YouGov has published polling suggesting voters support Burnham’s plan by 48% to 28%.

He said his changes would still leave millions of pensioners better off and that they would benefit from the new care system, which is expected to follow the Scottish system by covering care costs but not accommodation.

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