Andy Burnham is being urged by Labour MPs to abandon a manifesto commitment on the state pension triple lock to free up cash for defence and young people.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester is seeking to return to Westminster in next week’s Makerfield by-election, and if he wins is expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the leadership.
Some Labour MPs have urged Burnham to make “bold” choices if he becomes prime minister and set out a plan from the outset to move away from the Government’s commitment to the triple lock until the end of this Parliament.
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Caption: ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, ENGLAND – MAY 30: Andy Burnham, Labour’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, attends a traditional Saturday breakfast club in Ashton-in-Makerfield to meet with retired miners and local organisers on May 30, 2026 in Ashton-in-Makerfield, England. Miners from the area have a long-running campaign regarding the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme, they are demanding a fairer multi-billion pound restructuring of the pension surplus sharing arrangement originally set up during privatisation. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Photographer: Christopher Furlong
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Source: Getty Images Europe
politics
What Burnham as PM would mean for your pensions and benefits
Andy Burnham is being urged by Labour MPs to abandon a manifesto commitment to the triple lock on state pensions to free up cash for defence and young people.
Here’s what that could mean for you if the Mayor of Greater Manchester wins his by-election bid and makes his way to No 10.
Burnham urged to be ‘bold’
Party insiders are pushing Burnham to axe the controversial policy on the tide of “goodwill” following his arrival, reinvesting the money in policies to support young people and bolster the defence budget.
The policy, introduced by the Conservatives in 2010, has been blamed for the ballooning welfare budget under Labour.
A lot of thought needs to be put into transferring a DB pension to a DC pot (Photo: Getty Images)
OPINION
3 min read
How much does the triple lock cost?
The state pension now costs
£146bn
A year, three times what the Office for Budget Responsibility says it should.
This means the policy itself, which ensures the state pension rises in line with the highest of inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent, is set to cost.
£13.8bn
Higher a year by 2029-30.
This is due to higher-than-expected inflation and wage growth in the last few years, causing the state pension to rise by 10.3 per cent in 2023 and 4.3 per cent this year.
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 18: General Sir Richard Barrons, Co-Chairman, Universal Defence and Security Solutions attends TheCityUK International Conference on April 18, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Photographer: Leon Neal
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Copyright: GETTY IMAGES
Spend to protect
There’s no point me having a glamorous, comfortable retirement if the country that I bequeath to my children is at great military risk.
The words of Sir General Richard Barrons, chair of the strategic defence review, in the wake of the departure of the defence secretary and armed forces minister over meagre defence spending.
Labour MPs ready for reform on welfare after last year’s backlash
Dame Meg Hillier told The i Paper Labour MPs are now ready to back welfare reform, after Alan Milburn’s due to review youth joblessness.
Burnham himself recently admitted there is “no debate” welfare spending should come down, despite opposing measures to get costs under control last summer.
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Could football stadiums help solve Britain’s youth unemployment crisis? The Government plans to open 360 new youth hubs in places like football grounds, libraries and community centres, as the number of young people not in education, employment or training passes one million. Inspired by a Dutch model credited with helping to keep youth unemployment low, ministers hope the hubs can connect young people with jobs, training, housing and mental health support all in one place. Read Vicky Spratt’s piece for more information at the link above ⬆️ #NEET #YouthUnemployment #JobMarket #Footballstadium
Police arrest 107 at Palestine Action court ruling
Dozens of arrests have been made outside a London court as people protested during the sentencing of four activists, who broke into the Elbit Systems factory.
Caption: Protesters are detained by police outside Woolwich Crown Court, London, during a hearing where Palestine Action activists are due to be sentenced over over a break-in at the UK base of an Israel-based defence firm, Elbit Systems site near Bristol on August 6 2024. Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani were convicted of criminal damage, while Corner was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm when he fractured a police officer’s spine during the raid. Picture date: Friday June 12, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire
Photographer: Yui Mok
Provider: Yui Mok/PA Wire
Source: PA
Copyright: PA Wire
Hundreds gather to support activists
Around 500 Palestine Action supporters stood outside Woolwich Crown Court on Friday as their fellow protesters were being sentenced for entering the arms factory in Bristol in 2024, damaging £1.2m worth of property and assaulting a police officer.
Caption: Protesters outside Woolwich Crown Court, London, during a hearing where Palestine Action activists are due to be sentenced over over a break-in at the UK base of an Israel-based defence firm, Elbit Systems site near Bristol on August 6 2024. Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani were convicted of criminal damage, while Corner was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm when he fractured a police officer’s spine during the raid. Picture date: Friday June 12, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire
Photographer: Yui Mok
Provider: Yui Mok/PA Wire
Source: PA
Copyright: PA Wire
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 12: Hundreds of activists gather in support of four of the Filton defendants due to be sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on June 12, 2026 in London, England. Four of “the Filton 25” activists convicted of causing over ??1 million in damage to an Elbit Systems factory face potential sentencing as terrorists under Section 69 of the Sentencing Act 2020, after Mr Justice Johnson applied a “terrorist connection” to their criminal damage convictions. This controversial, post-trial mechanism subjects the pro-Palestinian activists to severe parole restrictions and long-term counter-terrorism notification requirements despite the jury not considering terrorism charges. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
Photographer: Guy Smallman
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They held signs reading “I support Palestine Action”, resulting in 72 arrests as people were carried into 12 waiting police vans.
Former Labour Shadow Chancellor among crowds
The worry I’ve got is because the Government has proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation – I voted against that – they will now be possibly sentenced on terrorist charges. I think that’s unjust.
john mcdonnell, speaking outside woolwich crown court today
John McDonnell condemned the decision to block Burnham in a fiery post on X (Photo: Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
What were their sentences?
Charlotte Head, 30, and Leona Kamio, 30, were each jailed for 4 years and 10 months for criminal damage. Fatema Rajwani, 21, was jailed for 4 years and 6 months for the same offence. Samuel Corner, 23, who struck a police officer with a sledgehammer, was jailed for 7 years and 8 months
for inflicting grievous bodily harm and criminal damage.
Protesters are spoken to by police outside Woolwich Crown Court (Photo: PA Wire)
- As he sentenced them, Mr Justice Johnson said the activists had been “reckless” about who would be injured, and had been heavily involved in organising the raid with the right of veto over each part of the plan.
Judge sentenced group
as terrorists
The four were sentenced as terrorists after the judge ruled in a pre-trial hearing the offences were linked to terrorism, but the lawyers defending Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, Charlotte Head and Fatema Rajwani argued this doesn’t mean they are terrorists.
Palestine Action was designated a terrorist organisation in August 2024. The designation was deemed unlawful by a judge in February but remains in place.
NEWS
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science
The little-known mineral that could help treat Alzheimer’s
Photographer: Andrew Brookes
Provider: Getty Images/Connect Images
Source: Connect Images
Currently a treatment for bipolar disorder, a naturally occurring mineral might prove the key to treating Alzheimer’s.
A lack of lithium may be part of the reason people are more susceptible to developing the memory problems with ageing that progress into Alzheimer’s disease.
Lithium’s benefits
Iceland is home to dozens of hot springs and geothermal baths (Photo: Sergio Amiti/Getty Images)
A long history
A naturally occurring mineral, it was recommended for health as early as the 1800s.
Bipolar treatment
In the 1950s, doctors started using it to treat “manic depression” as it was then known.
What is clear from the science is that we have as much control over when we hit middle age biologically as we do mentally (Photo: Halfpoint Images/Getty)
Try one of these methods to clear your mind (Photo: Richard Drury/Getty/Digital Vision)
Mysterious source
We still don’t know why it works as a mood regulator, but it keeps both mania and depression at bay.
New use discovered
About 20 years ago, hints emerged that lithium may also help in dementia – particularly Alzheimer’s disease, its main form. Bipolar patients taking lithium and people drinking water containing natural lithium had lower rates of dementia.
The giant Jianxiawo lithium mine in China, run by CATL, the world’s biggest battery producer (Photo: Gilles Sabrie / Bloomberg via Getty)
Senior man with Alzheimer’s and depression, sideways, looking out the window. Concept of old age, disease, loneliness, forgetfulness and memory. – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
A small randomised trial suggested that low doses of lithium may slow the rate at which people progress to Alzheimer’s from mild cognitive impairment. But larger trials are needed before we know if it really works.
How does it work?
Some of the symptoms of menopause that are similar to those of dementia include memory issues and trouble with word retrieval (Photo: Andrew Brookes/Getty)
- It inhibits the production of two proteins in the brain involved in Alzheimer’s, called amyloid and tau.
- Lithium also seems to boost levels of other compounds that promote the survival of brain cells.
Analysis
3 min read
Lithium deficiency disease?
Lithium is sold as a supplement, with people usually buying it because they believe it improves their mood or mental abilities, according to a survey by Dr David Cousins, a psychiatrist at Newcastle University.
(Photo: Getty).
- But as with all supplements, it is unclear whether lithium really is effective or could just be having a placebo effect. The dose in a supplement is much lower than in people prescribed lithium as a treatment for bipolar disorder.
news
Economy contracts for the first time in eight months – what it means
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 9: A person fills their car with fuel at a petrol station in Victoria on March 9, 2026 in London, United Kingdom. Fuel prices remain volatile as peace talks have stalled between the US and Iran in recent weeks. As a result, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continues to be restricted, impacting the global supply chain of around one fifth of the world’s petroleum. In the face of rising costs of fuel, the UK government has eased sanctions on Russian oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) with a trade license that allows the import of Russian jet fuel and diesel refined in third countries, as well as the shipping of some LNG from Russia. (Photo by Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images)
Photographer: Alishia Abodunde
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
The UK economy declined last month, with GDP down 0.1 per cent in April. This is the latest sign that the war in Iran is affecting spending and industry in Britain.
The economy had grown by 0.4 per cent in February, and 0.3 per cent in March.
The key figures
The services sector fell by
0.2%
According to the Office for National Statistics.
Construction rose by 1 per cent and manufacturing by 0.4 per cent, helping to offset the decline.
9.1%
Was the biggest drop, reported by the sports industry, which saw many fixtures in the Middle East cancelled.
Retail figures fell by 1.3 per cent in part due to higher fuel costs.
Chancellor acknowledges impact of war at home
Before the conflict in the Middle East, growth was higher than expected and inflation was falling. This is not a war we wanted or joined, but one that will have an impact at home… We are getting on with the job of building a stronger and more secure economy.
chancellor of the ex-chequer rachel reeves
Lord Alan West said Rachel Reeves’s department ‘needs to be kicked into shape’ (Photo Stefan Rousseau/PA)
They argued that he would start with “goodwill behind him”, and should axe the mechanism to release funds to bolster the defence budget and invest in policies aimed at supporting younger generations.
The triple lock, which costs three times more than intended according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), ensures the state pension rises each year in line with whichever is highest – inflation, wage increases or a minimum increase of 2.5 per cent.
High levels of inflation have seen costs balloon to around £146bn a year, which is equivalent to 5 per cent of GDP and more than double the amount spent on defence.
It comes after Defence Secretary John Healey’s shock resignation on Wednesday evening, followed by Armed Forces minister Al Carns hours later, with both accusing the PM of failing to provide enough funds to protect the country in the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP).
The Treasury is said to have offered £13.5bn of the £18bn needed to make Britain war-ready, which amounts to £10bn in cash terms – or just a 0.08 per cent increase in GDP.
Momentum has been growing among Labour MPs for the triple lock to be scrapped to free up money for defence, and policies to support young people.
“It’s definitely something he [Burnham] should look at,” one Labour MP told The i Paper. “We have got to rip the DIP up and start again.”
General Sir Richard Barrons – co-author of the 2025 Strategic Defence Review – told BBC Newsnight on Wednesday he would “release the triple lock in order to put more money back into things like defence.”
“There’s no point me having a glamorous, comfortable retirement if the country that I bequeath to my children is at great military risk,” he added.
‘Leadership contest an opportunity to reopen triple lock debate’
The uprating mechanism was created in 2010 because the state pension had become too low relative to wages and living standards, but higher-than-expected inflation and wage growth over the last few years has seen sharp increases and ballooning costs.
While there have long been murmurings from within Labour, and other parties, that the triple lock is unaffordable and unsustainable, many politicians believe scrapping it would be too politically toxic among older voters. All the major political parties, bar the Greens, are currently committed to it. Many pensioners claim that the state pension is their only source of income.
But Labour MPs say a potential leadership contest is a good opportunity to reopen the debate.
One told The i Paper a contest would provide “an opportunity to reopen the whole debate on pensions and welfare support and its purpose”, adding: “We must do more to support pensioners in poverty and support people into work, but the current system does neither.”
Andy Burnham has met with retirees in Ashton-in-Makerfield ahead of the by-election (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
The Resolution Foundation think tank, which issued a renewed call for the triple lock to be scrapped earlier this week, has cited analysis which shows that pensioner poverty fell in the 14 years up until the policy was introduced, before rising again after it came into force.
Bunrham allies are urging him to axe the triple lock to spend the money on “bold” changes to help the young, it is understood.
Although there is unease about welfare changes within the Labour Party after last year’s revolt forced the Government to water down benefits cuts, there is growing acknowledgement that the system needs reform.
The architect of last summer’s rebellion, Dame Meg Hillier, told The i Paper that Labour MPs are now ready to back welfare reform as Alan Milburn’s review of youth joblessness has been a “game-changer”.
Burnham has backed Milburn’s initial report on young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET) – which stated that the Government spends 25 times as much on benefits for young people than it does on supporting them into work – calling it a “national scandal”.
‘If I were Burnham, I would axe the triple lock’
“We are going to have to think big if we’re going to solve this problem,” one Burnham supporting MP said. “If I were Burnham, I would axe the triple lock – and I’ve told him as much.”
The so-called “King of the North” recently admitted there is “no debate” that welfare spending should come down. He opposed the Government’s measures to get costs under control last summer.
John McTernan, who advised former prime minister Tony Blair in office, told The i Paper Burnham could create “huge headroom” by reforming the state pension system.
“The minute you say that you want to look again at the triple lock and make it lock in the value that has grown in pensions for 20 years, but remove the ratchet, you suddenly get huge headroom,” he said.
McTernan said this is because the “largest, fastest growing part” of welfare spending is on pensions, dwarfing that of universal credit and disability benefits.
Cabinet minister warns Burnham would be ‘bound by the manifesto’
A Cabinet minister warned that Burnham’s options are limited by Starmer’s 2024 commitment to keep the triple lock for the entirety of the Parliament, as he would be “bound by the manifesto”.
But several Labour MPs believe he should breach the manifesto promise or set a timeline for moving away from it with a longer-term vision for the party’s future.
One said Burnham could “defintely do it if he wants to” adding: “Even if it is in the manifesto, we don’t have a written constitution, therefore the British government can do whatever.”
Another said if he became PM he would have “some goodwill behind him when he starts”, meaning he could indicate that he is looking to the “medium term” by scrapping the ratchet effect in the triple lock’s uprating mechanism, “even if he states it as a future aim for the next manifesto”.
One MP shrugged off suggestions that ditching the policy would be too political toxic, saying: “I’m pretty sure pensioners don’t vote for us anyway, anymore.”
Burnham’s stance on welfare has come under the spotlight since it was reported that he would compensate the Waspi women – a cohort of women born in the 1050s who believe they were misled on changes to the state pension age.
He is reported to have told a Makerfield hustings that he has “long supported” the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) and would “stick by” them as “they deserve some recompense for the unfairness”.
But his spokeswoman later clarified that he “accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model”. This could include benefits such as early access to concessionary travel.
How could the triple lock be reformed?
Several options have been touted for reforming the triple lock to make it more predictable and financially sustainable for the Treasury, while also continuing to support pensioners.
Here are all the main proposals for reforming state pensions.
‘Smoothed’ earnings link
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Resolution Foundation have long favoured the Australian-style “smoothed earnings link”, which tracks wage growth but protects the value of the state pension from temporary price shocks.
In most years, the state pension would increase in line with average earnings growth. But in years where inflation surpasses wage growth, the pension would instead be pinned to inflation until earnings recover.
A similar system is used in Australia – but private pensions in the country are also more generous.
The IFS said this system would provide “greater predictability for both pensioners and policymakers”, while the Resolution Foundation said switching to it from next year could save around £650m in 2029-30.
Double lock
Another alternative would be a double lock, where the state pension increases each year by either average earnings growth or inflation – whichever is highest.
This would remove the guaranteed minimum increase of 2.5 per cent, which gives pensioners security that their payment will increase each year.
The IFS said it would not resolve the issue of the one-way ratchet effect, as the state pension would still rise faster than both earnings and prices in the long run and eventually become unsustainable.
Lifespan fund
The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has proposed a more radical option, which involves scrapping the state pension altogether.
The former PM’s think tank has suggested replacing the state pension with a “lifespan fund” which allows individuals to build up credits via work and activities that can be converted into a guaranteed pension at retirement.
People would have the option of drawing cash during disruptions such as unemployment or taking on caring responsibilities, and the retirement age would be linked to individual health rather than a one-size-fits-all state-pension age.
But former pensions minister Steve Webb said the idea of linking state pension payments to individual health records and life expectancy was “deeply troubling”.