Unite’s Graham calls scrapping pension triple lock ‘electoral suicide’
The Labour party leader, Andy Burnham, is preparing to use his first conference speech as leader in Liverpool on Tuesday to set out what the party’s overnight briefing describes as “a more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation,” The Guardian reports in its overnight political live coverage.
According to the Labour briefing reported by The Guardian, Burnham will tell the conference: “We can’t carry on as we are. Politics-as-usual has taken Britain backwards. More of the same isn’t good enough and isn’t going to get us where we need to be.” He will add that “hope comes from honesty and from saying the things politicians usually avoid,” and that the moment requires “honest conversation” with the public on difficult issues that Westminster has ignored for too long, including social care, youth unemployment, and the need for greater public control of energy, water and housing.
The Guardian compared the framing to Ed Miliband’s post-2016 assessment of Donald Trump’s “big solutions” approach, which Miliband later developed into a book titled “Go Big.” The Guardian wrote that a more mainstream Labour leader is also going to embrace “Go Big” — a comparison the live blog drew explicitly with Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure, when Labour certainly offered voters a “Go Big” vision but for various reasons could not persuade the electorate.
On policy substance, the Guardian’s overnight splash — by Kiran Stacey, Jessica Elgot and Pippa Crerar — reported that Burnham will announce a new government-backed body to invest in the electricity grid. The Guardian described the announcement as his first major step towards putting Britain’s utility companies into public control, and the opening move in a broader direction covering energy, water and housing.
For most of the day’s media coverage, The Guardian reported, the dominant story would be a separate “Go Big” gamble on social care. On Sunday, Burnham said for the first time that he wants to fight the next election on a pledge to set up an NHS-style care service “with care free at the point of delivery.” He did not say how the proposal would be funded, The Guardian wrote, but over the past 24 hours Downing Street has done nothing to quash speculation that part of the proposal will involve getting rid of the pension triple lock.
The Guardian described the triple lock as one of the sacred cows of British politics, conventionally viewed as untouchable — even though, the Guardian wrote, in private many politicians from all parties agree with the view of almost all reputable economists that in the long run its costs are unsustainable.
On the triple lock specifically, The Guardian reported that government sources suggested Burnham would signal his willingness to review the policy, but stop short of a pledge to scrap it altogether. The Guardian added that Labour promised in its manifesto to keep the triple lock for this parliament, and that Burnham is sticking to that.
That positioning drew immediate opposition from within the Labour movement. Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, told the Times: “I think it would be almost electoral suicide. Morally, I just don’t think it’s the right thing.” Graham added: “We’re the lowest in the G7 in terms of how much we spend on pensions. I think that’s an embarrassment, quite frankly, because we’re one of the six richest economies in the world. I think it would be an absolute disaster, it would send completely the wrong message. I cannot understand why we keep going back to pensioners.”
The Guardian noted that during an LBC phone-in the day before the conference, Burnham acknowledged the political risk, accepting that voters might reject the proposal.
The conference agenda, as listed by The Guardian, begins at 10am with the Northern Ireland secretary and Claire Ward, the mayor of the East Midlands, speaking in a debate on power to communities. Lucy Powell, the deputy leader, is scheduled at 10am to speak at a “what can Labour learn from its members” fringe event, alongside energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh and AI minister Kanishka Narayan. Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, is set to address the conference at around 11:40am, with Burnham’s leader’s address following at 2pm. At 5pm, Labour chair Bridget Phillipson is due to join former cabinet minister Alan Milburn — who has chaired a review on Neets — at a Tony Blair Institute fringe event.