Nigel Farage has backed the ‘triple lock’ pensions guarantee – despite previously warning it is “unaffordable on a national level”.
Mr Farage said the policy was affordable as his party would soon “announce the biggest cuts to the benefits bill ever seen in this country”.
The move will be seen as a victory for Reform’s high-profile defection from the Conservatives Robert Jenrick, who in February backed the policy saying people deserved “dignity and security” in old age.
At a press conference in central London, Mr Jenrick pledged the party would cut “tens and tens of billions” of pounds wasted by the government, as it “fundamentally resets” spending to “actually put the British people first”.
“We have already identified £40bn of savings every year”, he added.
The U-turn comes just months after Mr Farage said that his party would not “guarantee anything” to pensioners, saying they would have “to see what the economics of this are like nearer the next election”.
Mr Farage defended the shift, saying: “When I said the jury’s out on the triple lock and what we would decide to do on this… if I could just interpret that into simple English, what I meant was the jury’s out. Not that I’d made my mind up either way.
“And we have discussed it, and we have debated it, and we’ve decided it’s going to stay.”
He added that his party would outline in two weeks “the most radical proposals to cutting welfare ever seen in this country”.
He said the move would mean the party could afford the triple lock “many, many times over.”
He suggested the money should be used on pensioners, describing them for the most part as “people who have actually worked and paid into the system”.
Reform will also look to scrap defined benefit pensions for new entrants in the public sector, he announced.
The triple lock, introduced by David Cameron’s government, means the state pension rises by the rate of inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent – whichever is highest.
The system is popular with pensioners, but there have been increasing questions over its economic viability in recent years.
A Conservative source said Reform UK were “all over the place on the triple lock”, adding: “It’s increasingly clear Jenrick is strong-arming Farage into backing unfunded policies with no credible plan to deliver them as Reform’s local election campaign descends into chaos.”
The shift means Reform will commit to keeping the policy if it wins the next general election.
The announcement comes as the party vies to win votes in elections to English councils, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd at the start of next month.
Mr Jenrick recently said he had “always been a supporter” of the policy, adding:: ‘We’re going to say more, but it’s incredibly important we provide dignity and security to older people on fixed incomes in the last decades of their life.”
But at the time Mr Farage suggested the policy was still under discussion. He said: ‘I haven’t changed my mind about the triple lock. It is still up for debate. Everything is up for debate.’
The policy is expected to cost the Treasury an additional £6bn a year when it rises by 4.8 per cent to £12,548 on Monday.
