Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservatives will consider means-testing the pensions triple lock.
The Tory leader said her party would “look at means-testing” the system which guarantees that the state pension rises in line with average earnings, inflation or 2.5% – whichever is highest.
The Conservatives have long championed the triple lock – introduced by former chancellor George Osborne during the coalition government – but some senior Conservatives have recently hinted that it might not be sustainable in the long term.
Speaking to LBC, Ms Badenoch said there were reasons to review the policy because “we don’t have a system that knows who should get what”.
“We’re going to look at means-testing,” she said.
“Means-testing is something which we don’t do properly here. I’m someone who always said, for example, that millionaires should not be getting the winter fuel payment.”
She went on to say that although the the triple lock was a Conservative policy, “we’ve got to give something to the next generation”.
“What are we leaving them with? And that’s what we’ve got to sort out. We can’t just make ourselves comfortable now spending the future. We need to give them a future.”
Her comments were immediately criticised by Labour and the Liberal Democrats – with the latter calling the leader of the opposition “bungling Badenoch”.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch has put pensioners on notice – she’s going to cut your state pension.”
They added: “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.”
However, on Wednesday evening comments by Torsten Bell, the newly-appointed pensions minister who used to head the Resolution Foundation thinktank, resurfaced in which he called the triple lock a “messy tool” that was “not a sensible mechanism for pensions uprating”.
Mr Bell’s previous comments put him at odds with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, whose government has promised to keep the triple lock.
New pensions minister Torsten Bell. Pic: PA
However, the government has come under heavy criticism for axing the winter fuel payment for most pensioners. It means about 1.3 million people in England and Wales who are entitled to certain means-tested benefits can now get either £200 or £300. The number of those eligible is down from more than 11 million previously.
Ms Badenoch said Chancellor Rachel Reeves had done an “extreme version” of means-testing with her winter fuel decision, “where people who are actually on the breadline have actually have had their winter fuel payment taken away”.
“We don’t have a system that knows who should get what,” she said.
“That’s the sort of thing that we need to be looking at.”
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Liberal Democrat 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.”