WASPIS STINGER
Fuming Labour MPs accuse Cabinet ministers of betraying WASPI women by denying them compensation
Kemi Badenoch said Labour had 'played politics' with Waspis for years
LABOUR MPs yesterday accused Cabinet ministers of betraying Waspis by denying them compensation over state pension changes.
Diane Abbott said the Government had broken a promise made in opposition to 3.8million women, while Rachael Maskell said some MPs were “in shock”.
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PM Keir Starmer, Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves were pictured previously backing Waspis (Women Against State Pension Inequality).
Those born between 1950 and 1960 were hit when their pensionable age rose from 60 to 65 in 1995.
The Parliamentary ombu2dsman said each should receive up to £2,950 for the failure to communicate the reforms.
Sir Keir yesterday said taxpayers could not afford the £10.5billion payout and most of those affected knew of the change.
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Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Labour had “played politics” with Waspis for years.
She said: “For years the Prime Minister and his Cabinet played politics with the Waspi women.
“The Deputy Prime Minister (Angela Rayner) said Conservatives were stealing their pensions.
"She promised to compensate them in full, another broken promise.”
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THE SUN SAYS: WASPIS STUNG
THE so-called WASPI women have been outrageously betrayed. Not by the refusal to compensate them, but by the false hope given them by Labour’s brazen hypocrites.
This ruling — more even than stripping OAPs’ winter fuel handouts or tax rises which WILL hit working people — exposes the cynical bandwagon-jumping of the Government in opposition.
The WASPI case was, regrettably, a non-starter. The vast majority of women knew the pension age was increasing and had 15 years’ notice. Taxpayers cannot afford billions to pay those who say they remained in the dark all that time.
But common sense never got a look-in once Labour spotted a chance to vilify the wicked, mean Tories and profit politically.
So, with zero thought, Keir Starmer supported “fair and fast compensation”. Rachel Reeves pledged a “fair solution for all women affected”.
In one especially moronic rant Angela Rayner, now Deputy PM, said: “The Conservatives stole this money from these women.
Millions have been plunged into poverty. We will right that injustice. Justice is a price worth paying.”
Turns out it wasn’t. The Chancellor’s “fair solution” is: “Nothing”.
That may be the right call, in the end.
But Labour will struggle to live down a broken promise of this magnitude.
Who are the Waspi women and what is their campaign?
WASPI women refers to an estimated 3.8million women born in the 1950s who have been badly hit by a change in state pension age from 60 to 65.
The acronym stands for .
The women represented were born between April 6, 1950, and April 5, 1960.
The WASPI campaign was set up in 2015 in a bid to help those affected by the change in state pension age.
Campaigners say they agree with the equal retirement age between men and women and are not calling for a return to the former retirement age.
But they say they do not accept the unfair way the changes to the state pension age were implemented with "inadequate" or "no notice".
Many women had made life plans based on when they thought they were going to be able to retire.
When this was then pushed back, it left them in financial hardship as they waited extra years to receive their pension.
Millions of women suddenly faced unemployment, zero-hours contracts and a loss of independence, according to the group.
Some of the worst affected were the 300,000 women born between December 1953 and October 1954, who were made to wait an extra 18 months before they could retire.
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