Andy Burnham seems happy to throw money at everything, except state pensioners.
Andy Burnham’s triple lock move will have stunned state pensioners (Image: Getty)
People said Andy Burnham couldn’t make tough decisions. It seemed his aim in office was to make everybody happy. Cracking jokes, uploading jolly TikToks, cutting energy bills and bus fares. Yesterday, he briefly made Labour conference sad by talking movingly about his dead dad, then made them happy again by promising to privatise water, rail and utilities, and produce a universal social care system to match the magnificently efficient NHS. Then he wound up by punching pensioners in the face, with his plan to scrap the state pensino triple lock.
Why always pensioners? It was the same under Keir Starmer. Chancellor Rachel Reeves couldn’t even wait for her first Budget to axe the Winter Fuel Payment from 10million pensioners, snatching up to £300 from single people living on as little as £11,350 a year. The backlash forced a humiliating U-turn, but Reeves continued her assault on pensions, savings, capital gains, dividends and inheritances. All of which disproportionately hit retirees who’d spent a lifetime building wealth for their final years, only to see Labour treat them as cash cows.
Now Burnham is at it too. Milking people who’ve spent a lifetime contributing to fund Labour’s limitless spending plans. Why has Labour got it in for pensioners? Could it be that the older generation remember exactly how bad things got under Labour 50 years ago, and won’t go near them again? Just one in five over-70s voted for Starmer. They recall the strikes, chaos, debt, taxes and waste, and didn’t fancy a repeat.
Now we’re facing the 70s all over again, as the nation’s finances career out of control, while all Labour MPs want to do is hike taxes and spend more money on benefits for working age people.The state pension triple lock has lifted millions out of poverty since 2012. From 2030, it will be downgraded, with the earnings element removed. But that wasn’t the only blow pensioners suffered yesterday. The other has gone largely unremarked.
Reeves also extended the Tory personal allowance freeze to 2031. Next year, the full new state pension will exceed the £12,570 tax-free personal allowance, dragging even more low income pensioners into the tax net.
Before conference, there was talk of hiking the personal allowance to £15,570. That would have solved the state pension taxation problem overnight, while offering some compensation for the triple lock assault.
Burnham didn’t mention that yesterday. Newsflash: it ain’t gonna happen. Pensioners will get the triple lock cut, but they won’t get the higher personal allowance. So it’s not just one blow, but two. So pensioners get the tax bill, but no triple lock. Plus whatever John Healey throws at older people in his upcoming Budget.
At the same time, Burnham prepares to throw money at Labour’s pet projects, from public sector pay to social security, nationalisation, union freebies and homes and benefits for the Burnham-wave of new arrivals. While British people who’ve paid into the system for decades foot the bill.
Now imagine what he’d do if he wins an election and gets a mandate. Pensioners still have a vote. They’d better get ready to use it.