A SENIOR Labour figure was confronted with a video of her showing support for Waspi women days after the government announced they would not be paying compensation.
Appearing live on BBC Breakfast, Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell was grilled after the UK Government faced criticism following its announcement.
A number of senior MPs and MSPs were called out for previously voicing their support on the issue.
BBC News play a clip of Lucy Powell supporting WASPI women where she says they are facing a 'lifetime of inequality' Powell then explains why Labour have changed their position on compensating WASPI women pic.twitter.com/MqQggZTCib
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) December 22, 2024
Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Powell was showed footage of her saying that “injustice” had been done to “millions of women” and that many of them have faced a “lifetime of inequality”.
Asked on why the Government has made the decision it has, Powell said: “Well of course that (video) was from 2019 ahead of that election when we did have a manifesto commitment to do something at that point about Waspi women.
“Things have changed over that time…”
Powell said she understood people’s concerns and said that her own auntie was a Waspi women who was “not happy at all” with the move by the Labour Government.
The 1995 Pensions Act and subsequent legislation raised the state pension age for women born on or after April 6 1950.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman investigated complaints that the Department for Work and Pensions failed to provide accurate and timely information about areas of reform.
Powell said: “When George Osborne (below) changed the pension age in 2011 and really dramatically brought that forward a number of years, that’s when the campaign really started.
“I was an MP at that time and we stood against that in parliament at that time and that was, as he said, to save a lot of money.
“What the Ombudsman was looking at was a period much earlier than that about whether there has been the right communication for women.
“It was quite a specific thing and we didn’t feel at this point in time that spending £10 billion or more on a miscommunication that actually found that 90% of women did know the pension age was going to change, this was back in 2004, was an appropriate, proportionate use of public funds.”
She further said she “can’t see” the UK Government revisiting the issue.
Powell also defended the “difficult decisions” taken by the Government, saying “we didn’t think it would be popular”.
In a series of interviews as Labour approached six months in office, she was challenged about the flatlining economy, the impact of the Budget’s tax hikes.
She told BBC Breakfast: “We knew (governing) was going to be difficult. I think the voters and the public knew it was going to be difficult too, that’s why they voted for change because we knew the country was in such a bad situation.
“I can understand people’s frustration. It’s a frustration that I share because we want to make things better, faster for people.”
On Sky News she acknowledged the economic performance was “disappointing,” adding: “Of course, we want to see these things happening faster. We want to see more growth in the economy, and we want to see that faster, really so that it can be felt by ordinary people around the country.
“But this is a bit like turning round some huge oil tanker.”
She said “we are starting to turn that oil tanker around”.
The decision to hike employers’ National Insurance contributions has contributed to a collapse in business confidence and experts believe it will cost jobs and lead to lower wage increases.
Powell said “it was a difficult decision, and it’s had consequences for businesses, I understand that, with the national insurance rise, but we took the decision to put a record level of investment into our National Health Service to bring down those waiting lists”.
Asked why Labour’s poll ratings had plummeted, Powell told GB News: “We always knew it was going to be difficult, and it’s proven to be the case.”
She added: “We’ve begun to start moving it in the right direction, but there are many fundamental challenges facing the country that have meant we’ve had to take some difficult decisions so that we could get the money into the front line of the NHS, and skills and education, and sort out our transport system, and really start putting working people at the front of the queue again.
“And that’s been a really difficult job that we’ve had to do. We didn’t think it would be popular, but hopefully people will judge us in four years’ time on whether they feel better off and whether their public services have improved.”
With the rise of Reform UK and speculation about a multimillion-pound donation from US billionaire Elon Musk, Powell confirmed there were no immediate plans to tighten rules on foreign donations.
Labour’s election manifesto committed to strengthening the rules around donations to political parties.
But Powell said: “We’ve no immediate plans to do that, but we do have a manifesto commitment to look more broadly at our elections regime in this country, from things like votes at 16, which we’re committed to.
“But also to make sure that our electoral system has got that integrity and is robust from many of the new issues that face undermining our democracy and our elections.”
