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Andy Burnham has been warned that voters will punish him at the ballot box if he scraps the triple lock. The Prime Minister was given an ultimatum after fresh calls to ditch the policy amid soaring borrowing costs.

Lord O’Neill, an ally of Mr Burnham, urged him to rein in “excesses” such as the triple lock – which sees the state pension rise each year by the highest of inflation, earnings and 2.5% – to calm market turbulence. But Silver Voices director Dennis Reed said: “No political party worth its salt is going into the next General Election pledging to scrap or dilute the triple lock.

“All recent opinion polls prove massive public support for the lock, and those ignoring that support will suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs.

“Instead of heeding these increasingly hysterical calls to scrap the lock, politicians should be devising positive policies to improve our pitifully low state pension, like removing it from taxation entirely and increasing the basic pension to half average earnings.”

The PM has said he will stand by Labour’s manifesto pledge to keep the triple lock in place for the current parliament, but there are ongoing questions over its long-term future.

Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, insisted that spending should be slashed on net zero and benefits for foreign nationals.

He said: “Reform will be able to keep the triple lock because we have announced huge cuts to net zero subsidies, migrant handouts and the biggest package of welfare reforms in a generation.

“We are the party for workers, and those who have worked their whole lives, and we will never tire of putting them first.”

It comes as Government long-term borrowing costs have surged to their highest levels for 28 years amid chaos on the global bond market linked to the Middle East conflict.

Lord O’Neill, a former Treasury minister who has repeatedly criticised the triple lock, said next month’s Budget would have to include either spending cuts or “some form of tax increases” in order to restore the Government’s fiscal “headroom”.

He told Times Radio that the bond markets would “respond favourably” to “credible action to deal with the excesses of the triple lock or the excesses of welfare spending”.

Lord O’Neill’s intervention came after he warned yesterday that Mr Burnham’s “tone” in his first speech to the Commons as PM outlining his plans for Government was “the last thing investors wanted to hear”.

Meanwhile, former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank Paul Johnson insisted the triple lock “has to stop”.

He told The i Paper: “Clearly, it has to stop at some point because it is just a permanent upward ratchet. Logically, if you carry on with this forever, it will take up the entire economy.”

Labour MP and former minister Zubir Ahmed said there should be an “honest” and “grown-up” conversation about the triple lock at the next General Election.

Speaking to BBC Politics Live, he said “maybe the triple lock is quite a blunt instrument” that was “appropriate for its time”, adding that there could be a more “sophisticated” way to support pensioners in need.

Elsewhere, ex-NatWest chairman Sir Howard Davies said the country faced “a very dicky period” leading up to the Budget on October 28.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he urged the Government to “make some signs about their overall approach to the fiscal balance” in order to “calm things down a bit”.

But Mr Burnham blamed the rising cost of borrowing on the previous Tory government as he clashed with Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.

He said: “When they were in government, we saw 14 years of stagnant growth. We saw 14 years of debt rising as a percentage of GDP.

“I would say to her that the turbulence on global markets are because of that exposure that they left behind.”

The Prime Minister admitted that he and his former economic adviser Lord O’Neill did “not always agree”.

He also refused to rule out tax hikes in the Budget when pressed by the Conservative leader.

When asked about Lord O’Neill’s remarks, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Our position on the triple lock is clear.”

Mr Burnham promised shortly before he entered 10 Downing Street in July to honour Labour’s election manifesto commitment to keep the measure for the duration of the current parliament.

A YouGov poll in May found that 66% support the triple lock, compared to just 14% who are opposed to it. Even among 18-34-year-olds, the triple lock was backed by 44% to 21%.

But critics argue it is too expensive, with the annual cost estimated to reach £15.5 billion by 2030, which is three times higher than its original estimate, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The Daily Express has a long-running crusade demanding that the triple lock, which was introduced to protect pensioners from increases in the cost of living, be kept in place.

Some 1.7 million older people are living in poverty in the UK, and another one million are close to the breadline, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions.

A DWP spokesperson said: “Supporting pensioners is a priority and we have committed to the triple lock for the rest of this Parliament, meaning millions of older people will see their state pension rise by up to £2,100.”