The triple lock will condemn Britain

Liz Truss is almost exactly the leader the country is desperate for. Britain needs someone to take painful decisions and even alienate voters in order to get growth going. Given that the next election is probably lost anyway, there is a case to be made that Truss should serve as the sin-eater for Conservative policy, implementing necessary but unpopular actions before she’s deposed. Last night rumour had it that she was planning to break the triple lock on pensions, instead bringing in a below-inflation rise. Perhaps this was to be one of those unpopular but necessary policy decisions? Not a bit of it. At PMQs, she told the Commons: ‘I’ve been clear, we are protecting the triple lock on pensions.’

The triple lock says that each year the state pension will increase by inflation, average earnings, or 2.5 per cent, whichever was highest in the year before. It is hugely popular with the Conservative party’s elderly base.