Is Boris brave enough to break his triple lock pension pledge?

It would not have been obvious to those drafting the Conservative manifesto last autumn that they were planting a very large bomb beneath the government. After all, the triple lock had already featured in three general election campaigns and had yet to cause the public finances a problem. But the very special circumstances of the Covid-19 crisis have lit the fuse. The inevitable explosion is either going to cost dearly the Conservatives’ reputation in the eyes of pensioners – or else widen an already gaping public deficit, as well as offend millions of younger people who might already be seething at what they see as intergenerational unfairness.

The problem is that furloughed workers are going to cause havoc with the calculation of average incomes. Under the rules of the scheme, recipients are paid 80 per cent of their normal salary, up to a maximum of £2500 a month. This financial year it will mean a sharp drop in average earnings.