A total of 10 Labour MPs have broken ranks with the government to support a proposed law to establish a compensation scheme for WASPI women – women affected by changes to the state pension age.
The bill is being proposed by the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, and it passed its first Commons hurdle by 105 votes to zero.
The proposed legislation would require ministers to publish measures to address the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) report, which recommended the government pay compensation to women born in the 1950s whose state pension age was raised so it would be equal with men.
The government ruled out such a compensation package last month, despite the prime minister and chancellor having been among the current ministers to have supported such a scheme when in government.
The 10 Labour MPs who backed the bill were:
- Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool);
- Julia Buckley (Shrewsbury);
- Neil Duncan-Jordan (Poole);
- Chris Hinchliff (North East Hertfordshire);
- Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk);
- Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth);
- Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields);
- Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes);
- Jon Trickett (Normanton and Hemsworth);
- Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr).
Mr Leishman said in a statement: “We [Labour] said we would deliver change, now we have the power to do what is right and not leave them hanging out to dry like the Tories, who did not even bother to respond to the ombudsman’s report when they had the opportunity in government.”
And Ms Lewell-Buck said in her own statement that she has campaigned for compensation for WASPI women for a decade, and that she will “always stand by [her] words and promises and act on them”.
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