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Friday, January 17

Labour Betray WASPI Women

JamieBy 22 Views4 Mins Read Uncategorised

UK Government Ignores Compensation Recommendation

The SNP has slammed Labour for betraying a generation of women, after DWP Secretary Liz Kendall confirmed the Labour Government will ignore the recommendation from theĀ UK Parliamentary and Health Service OmbudsmanĀ (PHSO) to deliver compensation.Ā 

In a statement to the House, Ms Kendall confirmed that the Labour Government would refuse the recommendation to award betweenĀ Ā£1,000 and Ā£2,950 to women affected by the change in the state pension age.Ā The UK Government is now facing a fierce backlash to their decision.

It comes after the Ombudsmanā€™s report, published in March this year, found thatĀ thousands of women may have been affected by DWPā€™s failure to adequately inform them that the state pension age had changed, adding that the result was that ā€œsome women lost opportunities to make informed decisions about their financesā€. As a result, the report recommended that compensation be paid to those affected.

Whilst in opposition, Labour promised to deliver justice for the estimated 3.6 million WASPI women affected by the change in state pension age, while in 2017 Anas Sarwar said that: ā€œUnder my leadership, WASPI women will finally receive the justice they deserveā€. Indeed, virtually every single senior Labour politician from Sir Keir Starmer to Liz Kendall committed to WASPI justice, while Scottish Labour figures including Anas Sarwar and Ian Murray were also unequivocal in their support.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Ms Kendall said the Labour Government felt the recommendations were not a good use of taxpayer money in what the SNP has described as a “devastating betrayal“.

The SNP has now called for a vote on the Labour decision to reject the Ombudsman recommendation of compensation.

The SNP has written to other opposition leaders to seek their support for a vote when Parliament returns in January.

Both Kemi Badenoch of the Tories and Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats have been pressed to use their Opposition Day allocations to force a vote.Ā 

This is a shocking decision from Labour, given their parliamentarians’ ubiquitous calls for justice for WASPI women while in opposition.

The WASPI scandal has dragged on for years and years now, with the women affecting having campaigned tirelessly for what they are owed.

It is just the latest and most jarring example of a Labour Party that has strayed so far from its pledge of ‘change’.

So many of their most prominent figures made demands and made promises to these women, and if they think they will just now wheesht then they are truly mistaken – the SNP, for one, will continue to push for what is obviously right.

GRAEME

The examples of Labour politicians previously pledging their support for WASPI women are countless.

Though it would seems that certain high profile figures may have already been removing evidence of their past comments and commitments.

Iā€™m Graemeā€™s Parliamentary Assistant based at Holyrood, but I support his constituency work as well. Having been Caseworker to an Aberdeenshire MP some years prior, joining Graeme's team in 2019 was a return to this line of work from a role in fundraising.

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