KEIR Starmer is facing calls not to abandon the Labour Party’s previous promise to compensate women who missed out on pension payments.
Former shadow minister Rebecca Long-Bailey publicly challenged the Labour Leader in the i to hand the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) cohort the multi-million pound settlement previously promised by Jeremy Corbyn.
Waspi refers to women born in the 1950s who had their payments reduced after the state pension age was raised shortly before they were due to retire. The alteration was imposed without giving the workers affected time to plan for the income cut, leaving many short.
In 2019, former Labour leader Corbyn said Labour would offer compensation to those affected, but Starmer has so far declined to make any policy commitment.
Long-Bailey, who ran against Starmer in the Labour leadership contest, urged her party to commit to the compensation in its next election manifesto.
She told i: “Only Labour has had the courage to seek to rectify and mitigate this injustice so righting a historic wrong for these women is ‘Unfinished Business’ for the next Labour government.
“The Waspi campaigners are rightly looking to Labour to deliver the justice for them that the Tories never will.
“Of course, Labour’s 2019 commitment must be updated and refined to take account of the impact of Covid, and the disastrous Tory mini-Budget which has done so much damage to the economy.
“However, compensating the Waspi women is affordable. A tax on wealth, profits of big corporations and ‘big money’ in the City could all help pay for it. There’s plenty of money available, if the political will is there to deliver a compensation package.
“Labour’s manifesto must retain a commitment to recompense the women for the money they have lost within the first five years of our party’s term in government.”
“Paying the promised compensation over the court of a five-year parliament is realistic and achievable. Irrespective of electoral considerations, it’s the right thing to do for these women,” she said.
“The trauma, hardship, poverty and sheer stress these women have been put through for a decade, must make justice for them a matter of urgency. “
