Only one Scottish Labour MP voted for a mostly symbolic SNP bill to compensate Waspi women in the House of Commons.
Brian Leishman backed the Nats’ bid to pay out women born in the 1950s affected by the state pension age. But the rest of his Scottish colleagues did not vote.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn’s introduced his Women’s State Pension age (Ombudsman report and compensation scheme) Bill to the House of Commons on Tuesday.
The SNP forced a vote and the bill passed to the second reading stage after 105 MPs backed it and none voted against.
The vote was symbolic rather than actually forcing the government to compensate the women. It is very unlikely to ever become law without government support.
Alloa and Grangemouth MP Leishman also signed the bill – a further sign of his backing. The other 36 Scottish Labour MPs did not vote.
Leishman said: “As a candidate I stood in solidarity with Waspi women and as an MP, I haven’t changed. At the heart of the Labour party is the quest for equality, fairness and justice and the Waspi women certainly haven’t received any of those things.
“The shocking fact is that every 13 minutes a Waspi woman dies and won’t have received the justice they deserve. That’s fundamentally wrong.
“I want my government to do what is right and to govern with the values, principles and ideals of the Labour party. That’s why I signed the 10 Minute Rule Bill and voted the way I did.”
Flynn’s Bill would require ministers to publish measures to address the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) report. This recommended the UK Government pay compensation to women born in the 1950s whose state pension age was raised so it would be equal with men.
The watchdog said the women should be paid up to £2,950 each, a package with a potential total cost of £10.5 billion to the public purse, as poor communication meant they had lost out on the change to plan their retirement finances.
But the Government last month ruled out a compensation package. This was despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves being among the senior ministers to support the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign when Labour was in opposition.
The vote was viewed as a symbolic show of support for the compensation proposal as private members’ bills introduced by MPs face a battle to become law if they do not receive Government support and fail to secure parliamentary time to clear the necessary stages.
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