Kemi Badenoch has suggested the Conservatives could means test the state pension after criticising the “triple lock” policy her own party introduced.
The Tory leader said it was an issue the party will look at as it conducts a policy review.
She was responding to a caller on an LBC radio phone-in who questioned whether wealthy old people should benefit from the triple lock, which guarantees the state pension goes up by 2.5%, the rate of inflation or average wage growth.
Badenoch said: “That’s exactly the sort of thing that the policy work we’re going to be doing will look at.
“We’re going to look at means testing. Means testing is something we don’t do properly here.
“I’m someone who always said that millionaires should not be getting the winter fuel payment, but what Rachel Reeves has done is the extreme version of that, where people who are on the breadline have had their winter fuel payment taken away.
“We don’t have a system that knows who should get what. That’s the sort of thing that we need to be looking at.
“Now, the triple lock is a policy that we supported throughout our 14 years in government, that was a Conservative policy. But we need to make sure that we are growing.
“Starting with the triple lock is not how to solve the problem.”
She added: “We’re living off the work that previous generations did. We’ve got to give something to the next generation. What are we leaving them with? And that’s what we’ve got to sort out.
“We can’t just make ourselves comfortable now spending their future. We need to give them a future.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch has put pensioners on notice - she’s going to cut your state pension.
“The Labour government has taken tough action to clean up the mess the Tories left our economy in, meaning we can guarantee a £470 cash boost for pensioners in April.
“The Tories have let the mask slip though and are happy to leave pensioners worse off. Yet again, the Conservatives haven’t listened and they haven’t learned.”
Lib Dem Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said: “Bungling Badenoch has finally come up with her first new policy, slashing the state pension.
“The Conservatives urgently need to clarify what she meant and how many pensioners would lose out.”