The triple lock is “current” Tory policy and in the “draft manifesto”, Kemi Badenoch has said.
The Opposition leader said the policy was “becoming more expensive” but insisted she wanted to focus on “the root cause” of the problem by reviving the UK’s stuttering economy.
Andy Burnham has announced plans to end the existing state pension guarantee which he hopes will raise £15 billion a year by the end of the 2030s to help pay for a new national care service.
The Tories have criticised the move as unfunded, though senior party figures including former chancellor Jeremy Hunt and shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat have individually suggested the current triple lock is unsustainable.
Asked whether she agreed the existing guarantee needed to be reformed, Mrs Badenoch told the Press Association: “I don’t believe this is a policy that even (Andy Burnham) understands. His sums don’t add up.
“What I have been consistent in saying is that the real problem in our country is welfare, people who can work who aren’t working.
“So we are not going after pensioners who cannot work, it’s the people who can work who are not working, that’s where our welfare bill is going out of control.”
Under the Prime Minister’s plans from 2030, the state pension will rise every year by at least CPI (Consumer Prices Index) inflation or 2.5%, breaking the triple lock’s automatic link with increases in average earnings.
But officials insisted it will also rise by more than this if needed in some years, to ensure it holds its value relative to earnings.
Asked whether she could guarantee the current triple lock would remain in place if the Tories returned to power, Mrs Badenoch told PA: “We were the ones who brought in the triple lock.
“Others will have a different opinion, I have mine, and my opinion is that we need to start off with welfare.”
Pressed on whether she thought the UK could afford the triple lock, Mrs Badenoch said: “The reason why everybody is talking about the triple lock is because we don’t have growth.
“If we were growing as an economy, nobody would be talking about the triple lock, and that’s why I am focusing on the root cause, which is that we’re getting poorer, rather than focusing on a symptom, which is that the triple lock is getting more expensive.”
On whether she could guarantee the policy would be in the next Tory manifesto, the party leader said: “Our current policies are in our draft manifesto. The triple lock is our policy and in our draft manifesto.”
A Labour spokesman said: “The social care crisis has been ignored by Westminster for too long, leaving people without the dignity and security they deserve.
“If Kemi Badenoch won’t grasp this issue, she should make that clear to the public who have been let down for years.
“Andy Burnham will deliver a National Care Service, as he takes on the problems politics has failed to fix and brings back hope to Britain.”
Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick, who defected from the Conservatives earlier this year, said: “It’s not like Kemi to be so coy.
“Why won’t she say unequivocally that the Tories won’t join Burnham in abandoning pensioners?”
