The Tory Leader

[SueEllen]

Pensions should be means tested says Kemi Badenoch

https://news.sky.com/story/tories-wi...-says-13290398

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.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...t-alarm-tories

Ros Altmann, a non-affiliated peer who previously sat as a Conservative pensions minister, told Sky News on Friday that Badenoch 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?”

She added: “The problem we have in going down the route implied – and I don’t think she probably means it – is that every pensioner would start getting a different state pension again. Whereas the whole point of state pension reforms is that there should be a basic flat rate minimum state pension and then encourage people to top it up with private pensions.

“As soon as you introduce means testing to the state pension system, you disincentivise from bothering to save in their private pension.”

Labour and the Liberal Democrats seized on Badenoch’s remarks to say it showed the Tories were coming after people’s pensions.

Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, said there was “being bold and there’s being plain bonkers”. “No one who thinks for five minutes can believe means testing the state pension is a good idea – but that is what Kemi Badenoch says she’s up for,” he posted on social media.

[SueEllen]

The full interview is on Global Player.

So you can hear it for yourself.

[jamesbrown]

She's hopeless, a gift for Reform (or, indeed, Labour, if they were semi-competent).

[SueEllen]

She's hopeless, a gift for Reform (or, indeed, Labour, if they were semi-competent).

She's just the caretaker before the proper leader takes over.

(I hope otherwise we are as screwed as the US.)

[vetran]

Geez what is wrong with these people? The public want their government to govern not punish the electorate for being foolish enough to vote for them.

so many ways to fix the issue but freezing pensioners is not the way forward.

[malvolio]

To be fair, she's only really been there for ten weeks or so. Starmer has had 6 months and is still there, and likely to be for another four years, so she has plenty of time to get her mojo back. As for replacements - got any ideas? The party can't afford to run another leadership contest for quite a while or risk undoing whatever success they have in raising people's confidence in them (if they ever do!).

They won't merge with Reform for all sorts of reasons (not the least that Reform have policies aplenty but no plans on how they would implement them, and nobody trusts Farrago anyway), but they may get forced into a coalition with them if the next election goes the way some people are saying.

As for means testing pensioners, that gets really complicated really quickly if you look at it dispassionately. Politically, it's a minefield of course, although the current administration look like they are going to balls up pensions even more than they already have done, so that may turn into a rescue job.

[jamesbrown]

She's just the caretaker before the proper leader takes over.

(I hope otherwise we are as screwed as the US.)

The proper leader needs to polish their clown shoes one more time, just to be sure.

[vetran]

The proper leader needs to polish their clown shoes one more time, just to be sure.

Bojo's back?

[WTFH]

We need to show her some sympathy, she would like to go on holiday to Italy but can’t afford it - between her and her partner they only earn £400,000 a year, and out of that she is unable to budget. (I would post a link to the Daily Fail that would tell you more about it, but their front page is about Hitler was Heavenly, no current news.)