Kemi Badenoch opens Tory Conference with SCATHING attack on Andy Burnham

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Kemi Badenoch says she wants to save the pension triple lock and warned Labour are “going after the elderly”.

The Tory leader ended speculation she could follow Andy Burnham in ditching the guarantee which protects the value of the basic state pension.

Mrs Badenoch, who kicked off the Conservative conference in Birmingham on Sunday, said the triple lock remains her party’s policy and “nothing that has happened that has made me change my mind.”

Her remarks come as a major boost to the Daily Express crusade to protect the triple lock from being axed.

Campaigners have also relaunched a petition demanding the Government keeps it in place.

Asked if the Conservatives would “no ifs, no buts,” keep the policy “in perpetuity”, she told the BBC: “That is what we have promised. There is nothing that has happened that has made me change my mind.”

It opens up a major dividing line between the Tories and Labour while Nigel Farage’s Reform UK have said they are “totally committed” to keeping the triple lock.

The party’s deputy leader Richard Tice said: “We're the ones that are absolutely committed to the triple lock. The Tories are sort of semi-sitting on the fence on that.”

Campaign group Silver Voices’ petition “Guarantee the future of the Triple Lock! Listen to us Andy Burnham!” has almost 300,000 signatures. Director, Dennis Reed, likened the government’s decision to Sir Keir Starmer’s “winter fule fiasco”.

He said: “With the cost-of-living crisis spiralling out of control, millions of older people will be worrying about how they are going to heat their homes and feed themselves this winter. We need these further threats to our living standards like a hole in the head.”

New analysis suggested Andy Burnham’s pledge to effectively replace the mechanism with a double-lock could cost some workers up to £38,000 in retirement.

The Prime Minister revealed last week that Labour will scrap the existing system, which means the state pension will match the rate of inflation, average earnings or 2.5% – whichever is highest, in 2030.

Under Mr Burnham’s plans it will be adjusted to rise by inflation or 2.5%.

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