Kemi Badenoch appears to have targetted the one demographic the Conservatives can rely upon by suggesting the triple lock could become means-tested under her government.
The Conservative Party leader, who famously never has to clarify what she says, has suggested she could back a major policy shift away from the universal promise introduced under her party that the state pension will rise each year by whichever is highest out of 2.5 per cent, inflation, or earnings.
When asked during an LBC phone-in whether she would look at the triple lock, Badenoch said: “We’re going to look at means testing. Means testing is something which we don’t do properly here.”
The comments have rattled her Tory colleagues, with Ros Altmann, a non-affiliated peer who previously sat as a Conservative pensions minister, telling Sky News that she needed to reconsider her comments.
“What we urgently need is clarification of what on earth she means,” Altmann said. “What does she mean by means testing the triple lock?”
At the 2019 general election, a staggering 67 per cent of the over-70 demographic voted Tory, while just 14 per cent voted Labour.
It is said that for every 10 years older a voter is, their chance of voting Tory increases by around nine points, and the chance of them voting Labour decreases by eight points.
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