Now Labour is in disarray over pensions amid row over 'triple lock'

Now Labour is in disarray over pensions: Lisa Nandy refuses to commit to keeping ‘triple lock’ increase guarantee in place if party becomes government – but fellow frontbencher Jonathan Reynold says it WILL stay ‘no ifs, no buts’

• Torr row over whether to break the link between state pension and inflation
• Shadow minister Lisa Nandy refused to say if Labour would keep it in place
• But frontbencher Jonathan Reynolds said that the party would keep the link

Labour appeared to be in disarray over its own pensions policy today as frontbenchers clashed over whether it would honour the triple lock. 

As the Tories row over whether to break the link between state pension increases and the rate on inflation, Lisa Nandy refused to say if Labour would keep it in place.

Inflation hit 10.1 per cent today but the shadow levelling-up secretary told Times Radio she could not commit to the triple lock before a general election because of questions over the state of the economy at the time.

However, shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds this morning said that the party would keep the link. the triple lock commits to increasing the state pension in line with the highest out of inflation, wage increases and 2.5 per cent.

Asked if Labour would keep the lock in place, Mr Reynolds told BBC Breakfast: ‘Yes, no ifs, no buts. 

‘Let’s be clear: the government’s manifesto commitment  is for exactly the same thing. There is absolutely no doubt that this is what they should be doing…

‘There should be no question of protecting people by matching the uprating to inflation.’

As the Tories row over whether to break the link between state pension increases and the rate on inflation, Lisa Nandy refused to say if Labour would keep it in place.

However, shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds this morning said that the party would keep the link. the triple lock commits to increasing the state pension in line with the highest out of inflation, wage increases and 2.5 per cent.

Ms Nandy refused to commit to maintaining the pensions triple lock if Labour comes to power.

Asked by Stig Abell on Times Radio whether Labour can be ‘categorical’ in its commitment to the triple lock, she said: ‘Well, we can be categorical that we’ve consistently voted to keep it, and we don’t want to see more pensioners pushed into poverty.

‘But what I can’t do today, and I’m not going to do, is make commitments for the next general election, which we think will be in a couple of years’ time, because we don’t know what we’re going to inherit from the Government.

‘We think it’s going to be the worst economic situation that an incoming government has inherited in potentially the last century, and every commitment that we make in the next general election will be fully costed.

‘We’ll set out how we’re going to spend people’s money and spend it wisely, because it’s their money and they don’t have a lot of it.’

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