WASPI Betrayal

At the last General Election our candidate for South Suffolk, Tom Bartleet,  was happy to support the WASPI campaign to get justice for women whose pension had been impacted by  a decision to equalise the pension ages for men and women which an independent ombudsman had found had been poorly managed and communicated by the state. They had recommended compensation be paid to the 3.5m women impacted by the decision

Before the election similar statements of support had been made by many members of the  existing Labour cabinet and Labour MPs who were also happy to be photographed  with local campaigners

Yesterdays announcement that the Labour government had decided not to pay any compensation came as a bombshell despite accepting that errors were made by the state and is wrong on two major counts

1 In opposition Labour were happy to support the campaign and support the Ombudsman's report.  With trust in politicians at a low ebb this looks to be another example of saying one thing in opposition and something completely different in power. To say whatever it takes to get elected and then to walk away from what has been promised

2 What is the point of having an independent ombudsman  to investigate the performance of the state which is supposedly here to support us if  you then ignore any recommendations for addressing state failures

The reason given is that we cannot afford compensation , that money is better spent elsewhere . The same argument could be said to apply to those affected by the infected blood scandal or the Post Office debacle. To govern is to choose.

What makes the decision even more unacceptable is that the government is refusing to let Parliament have a vote on the issue to allow it to weigh the issue of affordability against the moral duty of past promises made

The Liberal Democrats are determined to give MPs the chance to vote on the issue and are looking at options to force a vote.

To help re-build trust in what politicians say we are determined that what we said before the election in terms of supporting the WASPI campaign is put before Parliament for a final decision