Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali faced a fuming Kay Burley who questioned whether the public could believe a word the government says after its betrayal of WASPI women
Rushanara Ali grilled on Waspi compensation by Burley
A Labour minister was torn apart on live TV over the government’s betrayal of WASPI women.
Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali faced a fuming Kay Burley who questioned whether the public could believe a word the government says after it rejected calls to pay compensation to over 3.5million WASPI women. The Sky News presenter pointed out that Keir Starmer, Deputy PM Angela Rayner, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall had all previously backed the campaign to compensate the women affected by state pension age changes.
She told Ms Ali: “I’ve quoted you Angela Rayner, I’ve quoted you the Prime Minister, I’ve quoted you Liz Kendall, I’ve shown you the Chancellor posing with these women because you thought that you would get their vote, and you probably did, because you promised them you were going to give them this money, and now you’ve pulled the rug from under them. How can that be acceptable?”
Ms Ali rejected accusations that Labour has “betrayed these women just to get elected.” But a furious Ms Burley hit back: “How can you not accept it? You promised one thing and now you’ve taken it off them… This country has been built on the shoulders of these women who worked for most of their lives. They were made a promise time and time again by your government before you got into power and now you’ve literally said, sorry, that’s not happening.”
Ms Ali said the situation was “deeply regrettable” and the women had received an apology but compensation would not be a “fair or proportionate” use of taxpayers’ money. “The situation is that in terms of the compensation, it would be up to some £10billion, which we don’t feel is fair or proportionate in terms of use of public money, given that some 90% of those affected, according to the ombudsman’ report, it would not have been made a difference in terms of the delay in the letters,” she said.
“But the reality is, this has been a very difficult issue for those affected, and it’s deeply regrettable, and lessons will need to be learned.” She added “we inherited a mess” but “we are focused on making sure that people are better off, including pensioners”.
Repeatedly challenged about previous Labour promises to compensate the women, she said: “I go back to the point about the lessons that need to be learned, and the fact that this Government has apologised for that delay. But we’ve got to focus on the issues at hand, in terms of improving the living standards of pensioners.”
Ms Ali later added that improving public services for pensioners was a better use of taxpayers’ money. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “The fact is that we have got a huge, huge job to do in terms of making sure that the conditions that pensioners live in in our country are improved and that’s why our focus is on protecting the triple lock, which will unlock £30billion in this Parliament, supporting pensioners… and that includes those who are women born in the 1950s.
“We are absolutely committed to tackling the public service crisis in the NHS, making sure we’ve got more policing in our streets, which is about security and safety for pensioners and support for the NHS, they need those services. So this Government has inherited a devastating set of issues, we are responding to those challenges.”
Ms Kendall on Tuesday announced the government has dismissed the recommendations of a bombshell ombudsman report which said 3.5million women should get payouts. In March the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman called on Parliament to urgently pay out between £1,000 and £2,950 to each 1950s-born woman affected due to the shambolic handling of the pension age rise. Thousands were thrown into poverty because they weren’t informed about the change and could not plan for their future.
There were shouts of “shame” as Ms Kendall said it would not be a “fair or proportionate use of taxpayers money” despite apologising for her department’s maladministration. She faced anger from across the chamber – including from furious Labour backbenchers.
Angela Madden, who chairs the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign, said: “This is a bizarre and totally unjustified move which will leave everyone asking what the point of an ombudsman is if ministers can simply ignore their decisions. It feels like a decision that would make the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump blush.”
Chancellor Ms Reeves on Wednesday said she understood the Waspi campaigners were “disappointed” but insisted that paying an “expensive compensation bill” was not the best use of taxpayers’ money.
Ms Reeves said: “I understand that women affected by the changes to the state pension age feel disappointed by this decision, but we looked in full at the ombudsman recommendations and they said that around 90% of women did know that these changes were coming.
“And as Chancellor, I have to account for every penny of taxpayers’ money spent. And given that the vast majority of people did know about these changes, I didn’t judge that it would be the best use of taxpayers’ money to pay an expensive compensation bill for something that most people knew was happening.”
