Pensions minister Torsten Bell has challenged the Conservatives over their criticism of Labour’s pension reforms after a leaked recording revealed that shadow cabinet minister Katie Lam had privately called for “an entirely new pension system”.
Lam, now shadow communities secretary, made the remarks at a meeting with Conservative activists in June, before her appointment to the shadow cabinet and before Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced his plan to change the state pension triple lock from 2030.
“Ultimately I think what we will need in the end is an entirely new pension system,” Lam said in the recording reported by The Times. She raised concerns about the long-term sustainability of the current arrangements and discussed a greater role for private pensions.
Bell: ‘on track to scrap or means test the State Pension’
Responding to the report, Bell accused the Conservatives of attacking Labour’s reform while leaving open far more sweeping changes of their own. He claimed they were “on track to scrap or means test the State Pension”.
That is Bell’s political charge, rather than a proposal Lam set out in the reported recording. Her remarks did not explicitly call for a means-tested state pension, and she has since reaffirmed the Conservatives’ commitment to the triple lock.
The triple lock and the National Care Service
The exchange exposes a sharp divide over how the parties are addressing the cost of an ageing population. Under Burnham’s plan, the existing triple lock would remain in place until April 2030. Thereafter, the state pension would rise by at least inflation or 2.5% each year, with a further safeguard intended to preserve its value relative to earnings over time.
The government says the savings would help fund a phased National Care Service offering free personal care. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has criticised the change to the triple lock, while maintaining her party’s support for the current guarantee.
Lam’s comments leave the Conservatives facing a question of their own: how would they sustain the promise they are urging Labour to keep, and what would an “entirely new pension system” mean for the state pension?
