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\t\tLord Walker next to Rachel Reeves. Pic: Dan Kitwood\/PA Wire\t<\/p>\n\t\t\tFriday 12 June 2026 10:05 am\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\tLord Walker next to Rachel Reeves. Pic: Dan Kitwood\/PA Wire\t<\/p>\n
Lord Walker, the influential Iceland boss who was made a Labour peer, has called for the triple lock pension to be scrapped as the mechanism was \u201cprofoundly unfair\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a debate on welfare reform in the House of Lords, Walker added to a growing number of economists<\/a> and political figures calling for the state pension system to be replaced over its spiralling costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n The triple lock means the state pension increases by the highest of average earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent each year, often leading to pensioners receiving increases significantly above workers\u2019 wage growth.<\/p>\n The policy is backed by all main political parties<\/a> some 16 years after former chancellor George Osborne introduced the uprating mechanism in an effort to reduce pensioner poverty.\u00a0<\/p>\n Walker, who is the government\u2019s \u201ccost of living champion\u201d, said \u201cwe all know\u201d the triple lock pension had to be scrapped yet that it was \u201cpolitically untouchable\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLet us jettison the worn-out stereotype of who constitutes the biggest drain on our benefits<\/a> system,\u201d Walker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe should have the courage to challenge the pensions triple lock. It is mathematically unsustainable, politically untouchable and profoundly unfair: we all know it.\u201d<\/p>\n Triple lock pension is \u2018immoral\u2019<\/p>\n His comments follow similar criticisms made by the Resolution Foundation this week, the think tank that was headed by Treasury minister Torsten Bell.\u00a0<\/p>\n The think tank said in a report that the state pension was around \u00a312.6bn higher than it would have been should the government have introduced a \u201csmoothed earnings link\u201d, which it argued would be more sustainable for public finances.\u00a0<\/p>\n The proposal would mean that in years where price inflation exceeds earnings growth, the state pension would rise in line with prices temporarily before then not increasing to a level as high as the average earnings. It would ensure that in the long run the state pension would \u201ckeep track\u201d with earnings.\u00a0<\/p>\n