LABOUR’S betrayal of the Waspi women combines two of this government’s worst qualities — performative nastiness and political ineptitude.
Not only is it ignoring the recommendations of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, which back in March advised individual compensation payments of £1,000-2,950 for affected women (itself a fairly small sum, since the affected women have lost up to £50,000 through the changes in the state pension age at the root of the problem).
But it flies in the face of repeated statements of solidarity with the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign made by figures from all wings of the Labour Party over many years. Department for Work & Pensions chief Liz Kendall, who announced the government’s refusal to pay compensation this week, has always been on the party’s right but has herself posed for photos pledging justice for the Waspi women.
Anger is boiling over among many Labour MPs, with many publicly stating their opposition to the decision.
This reflects the personal commitment they have made to the Waspi women campaign — not every MP is as blasé as Keir Starmer about making and breaking promises.
But it also reflects growing concern that Labour is making enemies left, right and centre with the Tories and increasingly Reform UK leading it in the polls, and shows no sign of having a plan to turn things around.
The party has already attacked pensioners through means-testing the winter fuel payment when energy bills have doubled in the last couple of years, and amount to a far bigger burden on household finances than people are used to. Nigel Farage is already making political capital out of this, campaigning on the issue on the streets.
It now delivers a painful slap in the face to millions of women, one that will be all the more resented because the Waspi women have campaigned so long and hard for justice, forcing the issue onto Parliament’s radar nearly a decade ago, battling for opposition day debates and judicial reviews through successive setbacks.
On Monday the Morning Star warned that Labour is “so convinced by its own dogma about ‘tough decisions’ impressing headline writers that it courts unpopularity.”
This is the conceptual prison that Starmer and Rachel Reeves have built around themselves. The Prime Minister’s repeated smug references to having made the party electable suggest he has duped himself, believing that dragging Labour right has made it more successful.
But MPs and affiliated unions must dispel the illusion. Labour is in power because the last government was blamed for falling living standards and its vote collapsed. Labour’s vote managing to fall too in July, amid such a crisis for the Tories, is a remarkable indication of how unpopular Starmer’s politics are.
Clapped-out Blairite policy wonks advising interminably that looking “responsible” on the economy means publicly championing cruel attacks on poor people do not have the recipe for electoral success. They are going to drive Labour to a shattering defeat that will empower an aggressive and extremist political right.
Who is Labour going to deliver for? Abstractions like “the taxpayer” won’t cut it. It needs to make sure wages rise, bills fall and public services improve. The immense wealth accumulated by the rich, the swollen profit margins of the FTSE 500 companies compared to just a few years ago, show there is money in this economy to fund all this.
“Whatever Keir Starmer thinks, this issue will not go away. The women who have been sold short deserve so much better.”
Swap out “Keir Starmer” for “David Cameron” and those words were written for the Morning Star by Labour’s shadow pensions minister, a certain Angela Rayner, back in 2016 as she made a passionate case for the Waspi women.
She should take them up again. Labour has not heard the last of this. The movement and parliamentary party need to force a rethink before it’s too late.
