Conservatives should stop defending triple lock ‘Ponzi system’, says senior Tory

The Conservatives need to stop defending the pensions triple lock if they want to gain support from young people, a senior MP has said.

Tom Tugendhat, who came fourth in the contest for the Tory leadership last year, compared the UK economy to a “Ponzi system” during a fringe event at the party conference in Manchester on Monday.

The former minister argued that the economy and politics were too geared towards older people, saying a refusal to deal with this was driving young people towards parties that are “revolutionising” the system.

He said: “This is a logical series of outcomes for an economic system that has effectively become a Ponzi system for the old.

“That is what people are choosing against, and that is the revolution that we are seeing in politics.”

He added that the impact of this system was visible in the way “we are still defending the triple lock when it is simply not sustainable over the next 20 or 30 years in a way that means it is in any way applicable to anybody under the age of 50.”

Earlier this year, the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that the triple lock, which sees pensions rise by whichever is higher of 2%, inflation or average earnings, meant pension costs would become unsustainable over the longer term.

And the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank has warned during the Conservative conference that age-related costs such as the tiple lock were the “elephant in the room” when it came to getting public spending under control.

But the Conservative Party has been adamant that it will maintain the policy, with shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride telling the PA news agency on Monday morning the Tories were “firmly committed” to the triple lock.

Mr Tugendhat went on to suggest that the Conservatives would struggle to regain the support of young people without a “radical transition from dead money to live money”.

He said: “Young people are not stupid. They may be busy, they may be distracted, but they are not stupid. They can see the way the economy is going, everybody else can see the way the economy is going.

“And they are choosing parties that are revolutionising that.”