A group of Labour MPs has broken ranks to vote for a compensation scheme for WASPI women after the SNP forced a vote on the issue, while most Labour MPs abstained.
The ten Labour MPs voted to compensate women impacted by the change in state pension age after the SNP appeared to force a division on the floor by shouting both aye and no to the vote.
The MPs notably included a string of new members of the Commons, rather than being limited to the longer-standing left of the party as some Labour rebellions have been in the past.
The rebels were: Jonathan Brash, Hartlepool; Chris Hinchliff, North East Hertfordshire; Emma Lewell-Buck, South Shields; Steve Witherden, Montgomeryshire and Glyndwyr; Julia Buckley, Shrewsbury; Terry Jermy, South West Norfolk; Melanie Onn, Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes; Neil Duncan-Jordan, Poole; Brian Leishman, Alloa and Grangemouth; Jon Trickett, Normanton and Hemsworth.
Notably most of the larger group of Labour MPs who have previously spoken out against the policy – 47 at our last count – did not back the SNP motion. Some are thought to be in favour of a more limited compensation scheme targeted at those facing hardship.
The vote means that the bill has passed the first hurdle, but it is likely to remain symbolic withouut government backing.
From the government’s perspective, the division over the Waspi women is yet another headache.
Already, seven of its MPs remain suspended over defying the whip on the two-child benefit cap last summer. The opposition will be quick to highlight any Labour MPs who failed to back the vote, as critics have previously when there were parliamentary votes on Gaza and inheritance tax relief for farmers.
Labour MPs in ‘tricky position’
One Labour MP said they had been advised to abstain to avoid a “tricky” position with the whip further down the line.
They said there was “quite a lot of sympathy” among backbench Labour MPs. There would be a lot more support if the compensation was limited to the worst affected, or if it was to be paid out over a number of years rather than a lump sum, they said.
The MP added that the government should look at the WASPI situation again, calling the “absolute dismissal” of the ombudsman’s recommendations on recompense “an error”.
But another Labour MP hit out at the SNP for trying to force the vote. They said it seemed “like a bit of a staged attempt” for the SNP to “shine a light on themselves”.
However, they said a lot of Labour MPs were upset about the government’s decision, and there was support for the Waspi women across a wide range of the PLP. They added that any compensation deal would be focused on “a very small number of women”.
A Major decision
The modern state pension was introduced under a Labour government in 1948, with men receiving it at 65 and women at 60.
It was John Major’s Conservative government which introduced a timetable for eventually making the age at which men and women receive state pensions the same, in 1995.
This was then sped up under another Conservative government, David Cameron’s coalition with the Lib Dems.
The coalition’s 2011 Pension Act set out that by 2018 the state pension age of women would be increased to 65. In 2020, still under the Conservatives, this was raised to 66.
READ MORE: WASPI women compensation row: List of Labour MPs speaking out grows to 47
Under the current plans, the state pension age for men and women is set to be raised to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and 68 between 2044 and 2046.
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