Nigel Farage has accused Labour of betraying pensioners by indicating that it plans to abolish the state pension triple lock from 2030.
Writing after Andy Burnham’s speech at the Labour conference in Liverpool, the Reform UK leader said the policy would target people who had worked throughout their lives and paid National Insurance.
The triple lock guarantees that the state pension rises by whichever is highest of inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5 per cent.
Mr Farage argued that the Government should instead seek savings from areas including welfare, Net Zero schemes, foreign aid and migrant accommodation.
Farage vows to protect the state pension triple lock
“The state pension is not a handout, nor an act of government charity,” he said. “It is a fundamental social contract.”
He said workers paid into the system for much of their working lives on the understanding that they would receive security and dignity in retirement.
Mr Farage described any change affecting people in their seventies and eighties, who would have little opportunity to return to work, as “nothing short of a betrayal”.
He said Reform UK would retain the triple lock, adding: “We will keep it. Full stop.”
The party leader claimed that keeping the guarantee would be affordable if government spending priorities were changed. He said Reform would seek to reduce the cost of migrant accommodation, cap foreign aid at £1 billion a year and scrap what he called costly Net Zero schemes.
Mr Farage also backed cutting the size of the civil service and preventing foreign nationals from claiming welfare. He said Reform’s Treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, had identified £50 billion in potential welfare savings that could be implemented immediately.
He accused Labour of losing touch with working-class voters and said the party viewed older people as a target for Treasury savings. Mr Farage said Reform would oppose any move to reduce pensioners’ entitlements and urged Andy Burnham to call a general election.
“The choice, then, for voters who value their state pension will be crystal clear,” he said, presenting the issue as a choice between reducing pension costs and protecting pensioners.
