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Labour says older people are 'on notice' for pensions cut and triple lock under threat from Tories
16 January 2025, 20:46 | Updated: 17 January 2025, 08:37
Labour has accused the Conservatives of putting older people "on notice" for cutting the state pension.
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Tory leader Kemi Badenoch told LBC she wants to look at "properly" means testing welfare payments, saying there's no effective system to decide who gets what.
"We're going to look at means testing," Ms Badenoch said. "Means testing is something which we don't do properly here.
"I always said, for example, that millionaires should not be getting the winter fuel payment.
"But what Rachel Reeves has done is the extreme version of that, where people who are actually on the breadline have had their winter fuel payment taken away.
"We don't have a system that knows who should get what. That's the sort of thing that we need to be looking at."
Read more: 'Why on earth' would we merge with Reform? says Kemi Badenoch in first major speech of 2025
Kemi Badenoch on triple-lock pensions
She continued: "The triple lock is a policy which we supported throughout our 14 years in government, that was a Conservative policy, but we need to make sure that we are growing.
"Starting with the triple lock is not how to solve the problem. We need to start with why are we not making the same kind of money we used to make?
"I tell people we've started living off our inheritance, we're living off the work that previous generations did.
"We've got to give something to the next generation. What are we leaving them with? That's what we've got to sort out.
"We can't just make ourselves comfortable now spending their future. We need to give them a future."
A Labour Party spokesperson, responding to Ms Badenoch's comments, said: "Kemi Badenoch has put pensioners on notice - she's going to cut your state pension.
"The Labour Government has taken tough action to clean up the mess the Tories left our economy in, meaning we can guarantee a £470 cash boost for pensioners in April.
"The Tories have let the mask slip though and are happy to leave pensioners worse off.
"Yet again, the Conservatives haven't listened and they haven't learned."
Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: "Bungling Badenoch has finally come up with her first new policy, slashing the state pension.
"The Conservatives urgently need to clarify what she meant and how many pensioners would lose out.
"The Liberal Democrats are proud we introduced the triple lock and will fight tooth and nail against Conservative attempts to weaken it."
Badenoch also said Jess Phillips can "fight her own battles" as she weighed in on the grooming gangs row involving tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The Tory leader dmitted the tweet was "rude and insulting" when he described the Birmingham Yardley MP as a "rape genocide apologist" in a tweet, sparking outrage.
In response to the row and subsequent abuse aimed at the Safeguarding Minister, Badenoch said she would not "wade into everybody's battle".
The safeguarding minister previously hit back at the Tesla boss said we shouldn't be listening to a man who knows "absolutely nothing" about grooming gangs in the UK.
He made the comments after she resisted ordering an inquiry into child sexual abuse in Oldham.
Kemi Badenoch defends Robert Jenrick over 'alien cultures' tweet
Badenoch also defended her decision to not sack Robert Jenrick in the shadow cabinet for describing Britons of Pakistani origin as from "alien cultures".
She responded saying that the Conservative Party is a "broad church".
"I consider Rob a friend, we will all have disagreements, there are all sorts of things people say...but I understand where he's coming from...of course we need to be careful about language but we also need to be accurate".
Badenoch also stated she didn't want to see people lumped in with the rapists and the groomers "unfairly".
Read more: 'Why on earth' would we merge with Reform? says Kemi Badenoch in first major speech of 2025
Read more: Yvette Cooper unveils plan for local government-backed grooming gangs inquiries
However, she stressed that not talking about certain aspects of the grooming gangs scandal creates a "vaccuum"."When people use the phrase 'Asian grooming gangs', even 'Pakistani grooming gangs', what I was actually saying this is a very, very specific community that is over-represented.
"It's not about Pakistan, it's not about people from Lahore.
"But, we mustn't run away from things...the specific cases we are talking about in Telford, Rotherham, Rochdale - there was a prevalence of people from that particular tiny region in Pakistan amongst others.
"If we try not to talk about it, we create a vacuum".
