Keir Starmer faces calls to give MPs a vote on Waspi women compensation
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Sir Keir Starmer is facing pressure to give MPs a vote on his Government’s decision to rule out compensation for women affected by changes to the state pension age. The Prime Minister insisted taxpayers could not afford the £10.5 billion compensation package, and would not rise to calls for a vote on the decision as he came under fire in the Commons.
But Downing Street said it had “no plans” for a vote on the issue, adding MPs had had “an opportunity to have their say” on Tuesday. Sir Keir, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall – who ruled out a compensation package on Tuesday – are among the senior ministers who backed the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign when Labour was in opposition.
But at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir insisted that paying compensation was not affordable when asked by Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake if rejecting the financial package was part of his “Government of change”. Sir Keir described delays in communicating changes to the state pension age for women born in the 1950s as “unacceptable”, and criticised George Osborne’s move to accelerate the programme when he was chancellor.
The Prime Minister added: “It is a serious issue. It is a complex issue. The research, as he knows, shows that 90% of those impacted knew about the changes that were taking place. “I am afraid to say the taxpayers simply cannot afford the tens of billions of pounds in compensation when the evidence does show that 90% of those impacted did know about it. That is because of the state of our economy.”.
