The Conservatives Should Scrap The Triple Lock And Build Houses, Says Senior Tory

David Lidington arrives at 10 Downing Street, 2018 (Alamy)

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A former Conservative cabinet minister has called on his party to back housebuilding and abandon the state pension triple lock, in a bid to "look beyond" elderly voters and "really make inroads" with younger generations.

David Lidington, who served as Theresa May's de facto deputy prime minister during his almost three decades as a Tory MP, argued that a future Conservative victory will require the party to step out of its electoral comfort zone.

Speaking on this week's episode of PoliticsHome podcast The Rundown, which will be published on Friday (14 August), Lidington said the current generation of Conservative MPs should look at how electorally successful leaders like Margaret Thatcher "departed massively from a lot of political assumptions that had dominated politics".

Lidington, now a member of centre-right campaign group Prosper UK, said his party's "big challenge" as it looks to rebuild under leader Kemi Badenoch is "to look beyond our own core support, which is the over-65s at the moment, and really make inroads into the support of younger age groups".

"We need policies certainly on the economy and economic growth but also on things like housing policy, that are going to offer hope to young people with aspiration," he said.

"And you say to older people, 'This is about building the right country for your kids and your grandkids.' I think, you present the argument in that way, and people will buy into that, even if those policies are not directed purely to people my age."

Asked specifically whether he would reform the triple lock, he said: "I'm a beneficiary of the triple lock. I'm over pensionable age. I would scrap it. I would go to a straightforward earnings link."

Under the existing policy, introduced by the Coalition government, the state pension is guaranteed to be uprated every year by whichever is highest – inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5 per cent.

Critics warn that rising life expectancy and falling birth rates, combined with periods of high inflation, mean the commitment is not sustainable in the long term, and will only worsen intergenerational inequality at a time when young people face significant economic challenges.

Earlier this year, the Tony Blair Institute think tank called for the triple lock to be replaced, describing it as "increasingly unaffordable" and belonging to a "different era".

Speaking on The Rundown, Lidington said: "At a time when young people can work every hour God gives them and still struggle to get on the first rung of the housing ladder... People 18 to 25 living with their parents. When you've got real issues about how technology is shaping up the job market for school and college leavers. People are delaying having children later and later in life.

"We need to give those people hope."

The former Conservative MP said he would link reduced pension spending to funding a reformed social care system as part of a "new intergenerational bargain".

"We can't just load ever more tax and borrowing onto the shoulders of young people, onto the shoulders of your children, your grandchildren, who are going to have to pick up the tab if we don't make changes," he added.

"There are ways in which to sell such a policy, but I do think those hard choices need to be faced up to."

In the forthcoming episode, Lidington also said Badenoch is "absolutely right" to reject a pact with Reform UK, warning that a deal with Nigel Farage's party would be "deeply, deeply damaging" for the Conservatives, and said it was "contemptible" for Reform's Zia Yusuf to call former Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace a "traitor".

This week's The Rundown is presented by Adam Payne, and is produced and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot