TEN Labour MPs defied ministers by joining members across the Commons today to back a Bill to compensate Waspi over state-pension-age increases.

Scottish National Party parliamentary leader Stephen Flynn’s Bill was backed by 105 votes to none last night.

Ministers decided to duck a confrontation on the emotive issue by not asking MPs to oppose the Bill, which aims to manifest the recommendation of the independent ombudsman: that the women deserved compensation over official maladministration in notifying them of their pension date.

While the Bill has no chance of becoming law given the lack of government support, it gave MPs the chance to register opposition to the government’s decision to ignore the ombudsman.

Mr Flynn told MPs that the government “should do the right thing by all those people we made promises to.”

He read out the pledges to support justice for the Waspi women made in the past by many Cabinet members, from the Prime Minister downwards. 

Mr Flynn described them as a “parcel of rogues” who had used “warm words when they felt it was politically expedient to do so.”

Earlier, left Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth Brian Leishman told a Scottish newspaper that he was urging his colleagues to back the Waspi women.

“The fact is that Waspi women are the victims of injustice,” he said.

“Many of us have campaigned alongside these women when we were in opposition — solidarity is never transactional, it’s not something used to appeal to a group or a cause and then forgotten.

“We should do the right thing and deliver for Waspi women now we are in government.”

The government’s decision not to oppose Mr Flynn’s Bill indicates anxiety on the issue and a reluctance to try to force backbenchers to vote against justice for the group of women.

A number of left MPs would have rebelled regardless, while for others the decision was made easier by the government’s decision not to take the vote very seriously.

MPs of every major party, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, signed up to back Mr Flynn’s Bill.

Before the vote, Waspi Glasgow and Lanarkshire campaign group co-ordinator Anne Potter said: “We feel we have been betrayed and are extremely disappointed, particularly with our new Labour MPs.”