Rupert Lowe axes pensions triple lock and pledges tax cuts in economic plan
Rupert Lowe, the hard right leader of the Restore Britain party, has said he would back scrapping the triple lock pension and ordering three-year freezes on departmental budgets.
Lowe, who has mainly focused on the issue of immigration since breaking from Reform UK over a year ago, published a pamphlet outlining his new party’s economic plan.
Under details proposed in the 62-page document, Lowe said he would scrap the triple lock pension and order the Bank of England to request authorisation from the Treasury before introducing quantitative easing, the bond-buying programme which was used to stimulate activity in the UK economy.
The MP for Great Yarmouth has recently grabbed the media and Westminster’s attention.
After a row with Nigel Farage in the beginning of 2025 over a report on workplace harassment and bullying towards female employees in his constituency office, Lowe was ousted from Reform. He denied all allegations and called them politically motivated.
Since his departure, Lowe has won the backing of the US billionaire Elon Musk, earned thousands of pounds from posting on X and created a party that won around seven per cent of the vote in the Makerfield by-election, haemorrhaging Reform’s polling share.
In recent days, Lowe has offered Farage a truce as he said an electoral deal could unite the “patriotic” right. Farage refused to rule out striking a pact with Lowe.
The Restore leader remains a highly controversial figure over a series of comments around “cultures that treat women like dirt” and Indians “taking” jobs from Britons.
Lowe’s pension plan
In his paper on the economy, Lowe said he would abolish the triple lock pension, which stipulates that the benefit increases each year by whichever is highest out of CPI inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent.
Lowe said the triple lock pension would only rise by inflation each year. A replacement of the triple lock pension is backed by leading economists from across the political spectrum given it is a key pressure point on precarious public finances.
All mainstream parties, including Andy Burnham’s Labour and Farage’s Reform, have committed to keeping the triple lock pension due to its political significance in keeping elderly voters onside.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said last year that the triple lock pension had become unsustainable and would push pensioner spending to nine per cent of GDP in the next 50 years from its current level of five per cent of the UK economy.
Lowe also backed three-year freezes to departmental budgets, a policy which was promoted by the economist Roger Bootle. Other contentious pledges include freezing working-age benefits until 2030 and ending net zero spending.
Tax cuts costing £155bn
But the pamphlet also includes radical tax cuts for workers and businesses. He said he would raise the personal allowance from £12,571 to £16,000, introducing a zero rate on corporation tax for the first £50,000 of profit that companies make and eradicate unpopular levies such as stamp duty and inheritance taxes.
The pamphlet claimed tax cuts would total around £155bn although cuts and savings measures would amount to £178bn.
Lowe said his plan was centred around “fiscal fairness, fiscal pragmatism, fiscal responsibility, and fiscal accountability”.
The hard-right parliamentarian has also added to pressure on the Bank of England’s monetary policy decisions, joining the likes of Reform’s Richard Tice and the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Louise Haigh, in riling against quantitative easing.
Any new programme to buy bonds and stimulate the UK economy via “monetary financing” would require authorisation from the Chancellor. The party would also present its nominations for the Monetary Policy Committee committed to maintaining price stability.