Should the government get rid of the state pension triple lock (move to inflation linked only)?

The chamber voted 33-21 to axe the triple lock for inflation-only uprating, a solid if not overwhelming majority given the size of the sums involved — £130bn a year and rising with the demographics.

The real story is age, not the aggregate. Younger cohorts were emphatic: 18 of 20 in the 25-34 bracket, and 5 of 7 16-24s, voted yes, treating the mechanism as an intergenerational bill they'll be paying long after today's pensioners have banked their 4.1%. Voters in their late 40s and 50s pushed the other way — the 45-54 group was unanimous against (4 of 4), and 55-64s broke 8-4 for keeping it, the classic pre-retirement constituency defending the guarantee just before it pays out for them.

That split maps neatly onto the wider tax-and-spend argument now surrounding an ageing population: those decades from drawing a pension are readier to trade its generosity for fiscal restraint than those approaching the line. Gender added a milder shift in the same direction, with women here slightly more pro-reform (78% yes) than men (57%), though on smaller numbers.

It is less a verdict on pensioner poverty than a dividing line between who pays for the lock and who is about to cash it in.