Keir Starmer has blasted the Tories for failing to respond to a bombshell report saying millions of WASPI women must be compensated.
The Labour leader accused the Government of “kicking it into the long grass” despite an estimated 100 victims of the state pension age scandal dying each day. But he faces calls to outline his own plans, with campaigners saying he must show he cares.
Tens of thousands of women born in the 1950s were plunged into poverty when the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to properly inform them the pension age was going up.
Mr Starmer said it is “shocking” that ministers haven’t responded to a report by watchdog the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman which suggested women should get £1,000 to £2,950 each. The document, published in March, called on Parliament to urgently set up a compensation scheme.
Around 3.5million would be entitled to payments and an apology, costing between £3.5billion and £10.5billion. But Mr Starmer refused to commit to swift payments if he becomes PM, saying he wouldn’t make promises the country can’t afford.
Speaking in Glasgow, where he was launching Labour’s General Election campaign in Scotland, Mr Starmer said: “The Ombudsman’s report came out I don’t know how many months ago now and the Government should have responded and they haven’t done so.
“Yet again what they’ve done, the same with the doctor’s strikes and other problems, they’re just unaddressed, they’re going to leave them to the other side of the election so we’ll have to pick it up and look at those proposals. But it is shocking that the Government hasn’t dealt with it.”
Both Labour and the Tories are under pressure to explain what they will do if they win on July 4. The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign estimates one victim dies every 13 minutes and demanded an end to delays.
Asked by The Mirror what Labour would do, Mr Starmer said: “What I’m not going to do is stand here and make promises that I don’t think we can afford. I’m going to look at the Ombudsman’s recommendations if we’re privileged to come into power. Someone should have looked at them, it should have been responded to, they’ve kicked it into the long grass.
“There’s a long list of challenges that we will pick up if we’re privileged to come into power and this is one of them.” Ministers had not laid out a response to the report before Parliament dissolved due to Rishi Sunak’s snap election announcement.
Angela Madden, who chairs the WASPI campaign, said: “It just isn’t good enough to say WASPI women should take a leap of faith and support Labour on the basis the party will think about compensation if they win.
“Yes the government has tried to kick WASPI into the long grass, but the question is whether Starmer cares enough to retrieve us from the rough. The independent Ombudsman’s report is clear and Labour has had three months to read it just as the Conservatives have. Compensation is owed – end of story.
“WASPI women are watching and waiting, looking to Labour to make a firm manifesto commitment to match the smiles and warm words we have had from the party in photographs over the years.
“One affected woman dies every 13 minutes so we just cannot afford a single further day’s delay.”
Campaigners that affected women lost an average of £50,000 in state pension payments. Failures by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) meant millions of women born in the 1950s didn’t know the state pension age was rising from 60 to 65, and then to 66.
This plunged tens of thousands into poverty, and tragically an estimated 270,000 women have died without receiving payment or an apology.