Labour MPs are privately urging Andy Burnham to consider ditching the state pension triple lock from the next general election manifesto after top economists warned it risks consuming the UK economy.
Under the triple lock, the state pension rises each year in line with whichever is highest of inflation, wage increases or 2.5 per cent.
But there are growing calls for it to be axed after high inflation in recent years has seen costs balloon to around £146bn a year, accounting for nearly half of welfare spending and more than double the entire defence budget.
How the baby bust is devastating primary schools
With birth rates falling across the UK, London’s schools and parents are dealing with the consequences.
What is the baby bust?
Dropping birth rate
In England, declining birth rates have led to over 100 schools permanently closing in the last decade.
Fewer pupils
England’s state schools are largely funded according to the number of pupils they teach; when school rolls fall, so does their income.
Unchanged costs
But operational costs do not shrink at the same rate as pupil decline.
Expert opinion
In London, a pupil will attract £6,000 to £7,000, so each pupil you lose is costing you quite a lot
Jon Andrews, head of analysis at the Education Policy Institute, explained that costs will stay the same despite pupil numbers falling because “you’re still needing a teacher in front of that class – and potentially a teaching assistant, too”.
A growing problem
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The Inbetweeners 3 – what we know as Netflix releases teaser
is making a comeback, with Netflix announcing production has begun on a third film.
Reunion incoming
Netflix announced that the cast of the popular E4 sitcom are due to reunite for another raunchy cinematic romp which is “now in production”, according to a new minute-long teaser trailer.
The cast last appeared on the big screen together in 2014’s The Inbetweeners 2, which saw them take a gap year across Australia.
What we know so far…
Continuing the story
It marks a continuation of the popular series, which aired from 2008 to 2010 followed by films in 2011 and 2014.
The gang’s all back
Actors Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Joe Thomas will reprise their roles as Will, Jay, Neil and Simon.
Creators to direct
creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris will return to write and direct the film.
Ooh, friends again!
It’s been super-fun hanging out with our friends again, and we’re going to work hard every week to ensure there are no problemos making this new film for humans.
creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris
‘I’ve struggled to find a goal since The Inbetweeners’
All James Buckley wanted growing up was to be in a well-loved sitcom. That dream gave him direction and purpose. When he was 20, earlier than he’d ever imagined, it came true. The problem is, when your dream comes true so quickly, it’s hard to come up with another.
Why children are being urged to get flu vaccine
Parents are being urged to ensure their children are vaccinated against flu this winter after a drop in vaccinations last year.
Here’s how to check if your child is eligible.
Why the push for flu jabs?
- In 2025/26, just 55.5 per cent of primary school children had a flu vaccine, according to new figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
- This is around 2.5 million youngsters out of the 4.5 million who were eligible.
- The vaccine, given as a nasal spray, is estimated to have prevented 68 per cent of children from being admitted to hospital last year and kept 52 per cent from having to visit their GP.
How will vaccine rollout work?
Who is eligible?
Toddlers aged two to three, primary school-aged children, secondary school pupils and children aged at least six months with long-term health conditions.
Where can you get it?
At the GP for toddlers, while older children are offered it in school.
When will it start?
Expert opinion
Ensuring children are vaccinated against with a painless and easy nose spray, not only helps to protect them, but also helps stop them spreading it into the wider community.
Dr Suzanna McDonald, UKHSA’s flu programme lead, said ensuring appropriate protection will take a “concerted effort” from parents, school vaccination teams, and head teachers.
“From my perspective, the main objective is for Labour not to put it in the next manifesto,” one Labour MP told The i Paper. They suggested the party could use “vaguer wording on delivering dignity and financial security to all old people”, or something similar.
The fact the policy has been questioned by senior Conservative politicians, including newly appointed shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat, suggests “there could be a political space for [reform] at some point”, they added.
Tugendhat previously said the triple lock is “simply not sustainable over the next 20-30 years”, arguing that the economy is geared towards pensioners rather than young people.
Paul Johnson, the former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank, recently told The i Paper that politicians had to stop pretending that the mechanism “can carry on for ever” and warned that without change it would end up consuming the British economy.
But Sir Steve Webb, the former coalition minister who helped introduce the policy, warned it is too early for the lock to go, with pensioner poverty on the rise and workplace pensions “not big enough to take the strain”.
“It is true that the cost of the pension triple lock could be unsustainable if maintained for many decades, but it does not follow that it should go straight away,” he told The i Paper.
He argued the policy should be kept under “constant review”, saying: “All we need to do now is decide whether it should remain parliament by parliament, and at the moment private sector pensions are so modest that we should not be taking our foot off the gas on the state pension.”
The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) has called on Chancellor John Healey to abandon the policy to help get the Government out of its “fiscal bind”.
The BCC argued that scrapping the policy and raising the state pension by inflation each year could save the Treasury £3.3bn over two years, which could be used to fund a tax break on employers for hiring under-25s to “tackle the youth employment crisis”.
Another Labour MP, who has long supported replacing the triple lock with a different mechanism, suggested that it would make sense to “look at” the state pension alongside the wider Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reforms to avoid “unbalanced support”.
The backbencher said they were willing to wait for the outcome of Labour grandee Alan Milburn’s review into youth worklessness, but added: “If we’re looking at welfare then we have to look at the whole of the DWP budget or we will end up with even more unbalanced support.”
Major reforms to the welfare system are not expected until 2027, as The i Paper recently revealed. The legislation is expected to set out the Government’s response to the review of disability benefits led by disability minister Sir Stephen Timms, and Milburn’s review of young people who are economically inactive or Neets – not in employment, education or training.
The backbencher added that other Labour colleagues are keen to move away from the triple lock in private, but are “understandably scared of the politics”. Any move to dilute the state pension is widely seen as politically toxic as older generations are more likely to vote.
There has been some cross-party support for scrapping the triple lock, with former chancellor Sir Jeremy Hunt telling the BBC he hopes the policy is phased out over time and that “none of the major parties promise to keep the triple lock going into the next election”.
Meanwhile, Tory peer Matthew Elliott argued that it should be replaced with a mechanism that links the state pension to inflation.
He argued this would “help put the public finances on a sustainable footing and free up money to cut the cost of employing young people”.
The Treasury has been contacted for comment.