CROSS-PARTY MSPs have sent a joint letter to Keir Starmer calling for compensation for Waspi women – but Scottish Labour declined to sign.
Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville coordinated the letter to the Prime Minister to call for the UK Government to listen to the calls from Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaigners.
Waspi women were vindicated by a report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) last March, which said maladministration had negatively affected women born in the 1950s in their ability to plan for retirement and recommended compensation of £1000 to £2950 per person.
The Labour Government declined to honour the ombudsman’s recommendations – leading the PHSO to say it was being undermined.
In a Holyrood vote last week, MSPs voted unanimously for the UK Government to offer compensation to Waspi women.
Speaking during the debate, Somerville said: “A letter will be sent to the UK Government following the vote tonight, and I invite all parties to sign up to it. Let us truly speak with one voice.
“This Government will not walk away after we have pressed our buttons at decision time and said once again that we are absolutely devastated and disappointed by the UK Government. We will not just walk away and move on to the next issue.
“The letter is another step and another opportunity for all of us to come together to support our Waspi women. I will be pleased to send a draft of the letter to the opposition spokespeople after decision time tonight, asking for their parties to support the Government on the issue.”
However, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives did not.
Somerville said: “I am very grateful to those party leaders in the Scottish Parliament who have joined with me to call on the UK Government to deliver justice for the Waspi women.
“I was pleased that last week that the Scottish Parliament spoke with one voice on delivering justice for Waspi women. But that is why it is so disappointing that Scottish Labour has now refused to join the cross-party calls directly to the Prime Minister to demand that the UK Government deliver the compensation these women are due.”
She went on: “Waspi women will no doubt feel let down that Labour will say one thing in the chamber at Holyrood, but do another thing entirely when it comes to making direct calls to the Prime Minister.
“The UK Labour Government’s failure to deliver justice for Waspi women is completely unacceptable.
“Scottish Labour have a choice to make – will they stand up for Scotland’s pensioners, or will they stand up for the Prime Minister?”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said that the UK Government's decision not to compensate Waspi women was wrong.
Earlier this week, MPs at Westminster also voted for SNP group leader Stephen Flynn’s bill which would force Labour ministers to compensate Waspi women.
However, all Scottish Labour MPs – except Brian Leishman – abstained on the vote.
Asked for a response, Scottish Labour pointed to an ITV Border interview Sarwar conducted in December.
“I think they've come to the right place on injustice and they've come to the right place on apology, but I don't think it's the right decision on compensation.
“And I think given these public finances, I think a different way forward could have been found.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: “We accept the Ombudsman’s finding of maladministration and have apologised for there being a 28-month delay in writing to 1950s-born women.
“However, evidence showed only one in four people remember reading and receiving letters that they weren’t expecting and that by 2006 90% of 1950s-born women knew that the State Pension age was changing.
“Earlier letters wouldn’t have affected this. For these and other reasons the government cannot justify paying for a £10.5 billion compensation scheme at the expense of the taxpayer.”
