Politics ed balls George Osborne

This looks like George Osborne has just found out how the triple lock works, 16 years after he launched it

Oonagh Keating. Updated October 1st, 2026

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The former political opponents Ed Balls and George Osborne now have a podcast together, named Political Currency.

The two former chancellors don’t solely talk about finance, but it’s often at the heart of their discussions, and their recent dissection of Andy Burnham’s conference performance included their take on his remarks about changing the pensions triple lock.

Here’s Ed Balls explaining to the man who introduced the triple lock policy how the wage increase guarantee could quickly become unaffordable, and there was something about Osborne’s reaction that raised suspicions.

Although that’s not actually compound interest, it’s certainly a concept you’d expect Osborne to have grasped at least before he launched the policy, and people weren’t convinced he had.

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While we’re inclined to think that Osborne’s apparent realisation was probably performative, we’re still not convinced that he was qualified to be Chancellor.

Source Political Currency H/T Cromwell’s Redoubt Image Screengrab