Britain is being bankrupted — by a promise we can't afford.

Our Manifesto

There's only so many leaving drinks you can go to before it starts to feel like something is horribly wrong. Year by year, our friends and family are leaving Britain in droves — for Australia, America, Switzerland, the UAE — places where young people believe they can not only survive, but thrive. Places where wages go further, and where the economy is growing, not shrinking.

We are far from alone in this. Britain is experiencing a brain drain of mammoth proportions: 136,000 Britons left last year, more than half of them aged between 16 and 34, most bound for the US and Australia. And, according to the Migration Observatory, fewer Britons are returning than ever before. These are often smart, hard-working people — doctors, engineers, AI researchers — who could be building the Britain of tomorrow. Instead, our loss is the gain of other nations.

To many young people, Britain is a sinking ship, and they are looking for the nearest lifeboat. Much of that is down to successive governments — of whatever colour — that have seemed unable to make the tough calls: on building houses, railways, nuclear power stations; on fixing health and social care; on growing the economy so there's more for everyone. We have a government addicted to putting off hard decisions and hoping someone else picks up the tab.

There is no better example of this than the Triple Lock.

The Triple Lock was cooked up by the coalition government in 2010: a guarantee that the state pension rises every year by whichever is highest of inflation, wage growth, or 2.5%. It wasn't backed by serious research. It was never meant to be permanent. It was designed to win over the largest and most engaged voting bloc in British politics: pensioners. It's true that, at the time, the state pension was too low, but the Triple Lock was a flawed solution — and it's only got more disastrous over time.

Since its introduction in 2011, the cost of the Triple Lock has ballooned — driven in large part by the inflation spikes of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine — to around three times more than originally expected. It costs roughly £12 billion a year above what a simple earnings link would cost, and will rise to an estimated £15.5 billion by 2030. As the population ages, meaning a rising number of pensioners and a falling number of taxpayers, that burden only grows.

This is money coming straight out of the pockets of people working today. There is no pension pot with your name on it waiting to be topped up — nobody has “earned” the Triple Lock. In fact, someone retiring in their sixties today will get back around 30% more from the state than they paid in. And worst of all, it hasn't even solved pensioner poverty: the number of pensioners in poverty has risen since the Triple Lock was introduced, according to the Resolution Foundation. That's because while the Triple Lock has increased the wealth of pensioners in general, those who need targeted help the most aren't getting it.

It's little wonder that Lord Richard Walker, chairman of Iceland and the government's cost of living tsar, has called the Triple Lock “mathematically unsustainable” and “profoundly unfair.” He's far from alone. Tony Blair, Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove have all questioned its affordability, as have the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Monetary Fund.

So why won't the government scrap it? Because they're scared — scared pensioners will turn on them, scared the media will pile in, scared that young people simply don't care. So we trundle on toward financial strain, and more of our brightest keep leaving.

Will the last one to leave Britain remember to turn out the light?

It doesn't have to be like this.

We believe Britain can be saved, because we believe in Britain. This is the country that kickstarted the Industrial Revolution, discovered evolution and antibiotics, invented football, and produced legendary artists from Shakespeare, to Bowie to Charli XCX. With enough will and smart decision-making, we can grow the economy. We can build a country where it's fun to be young again. We can create a pension that is fair and affordable — and ensures that no pensioner lives in poverty.

But that starts with one thing: stopping the Triple Lock.

That's why we need to show the government that people care about this issue. We need to bring everyone who's already against this policy under one tent, and spread the message to the public that the Triple Lock is putting their own finances at risk — across all generations. We don't have much time. An election is looming, and we need every party to understand the country won't accept more of the same.

That's why we're asking you to join us — whether you're an MP or you'd never heard of the Triple Lock until today.

In 1974, the future Prime Minister James Callaghan said: “Sometimes when I go to bed at night, I think that if I were a younger man I would emigrate. But when I wake up in the morning, I ask myself whether there is any place else I would prefer to go.” We want to build a Britain where every young person believes their future is bright; a country where people want to stay — where our friends and family come home, and where we all get to retire together.

Will you join us?