QUENTIN LETTS: Is Sir Keir Starmer about to face a massive rebellion in light of Labour's betrayal of WASPI women? By QUENTIN LETTS FOR THE DAILY MAIL Published: 17:30 EST, 17 December 2024 | Updated: 17:41 EST, 17 December 2024 e-mail 55 View comments Are the wormlets starting to turn? Backbench Labour MPs, so rapturous since July, showed the first signs of independence. They may finally be clocking that the Starmer Government is a deceitful dud. Liz Kendall, Pensions Secretary, announced that Waspi women (1950s-born women whose pension age increased from 60) would not be compensated for a Civil Service foul-up.
Between 2005 and 2007, officials failed to send sufficient written warning that pension rules were changing. Now the parliamentary ombudsman has written a withering report. The dread term 'maladministration' was used.
Ms Kendall duly received a '360-degree pummelling'. That description came from a Lib Dem but it was the likes of Labour's Brian Leishman who administered the beating. Mr Leishman (Alloa & Grangemouth) stood still and paused, as can happen when a diver is about to boing off a high board.
Then he jumped. 'Appalled' by Ms Kendall's decision, he had campaigned alongside Waspi women who would now regard this Government's decision as 'an incredible let-down'. They did not need 'hollow statements'.
This drew cheers from his colleagues. Burly Gareth Snell (Lab, Stoke Central) squinted through his smudged spectacles and called Ms Kendall's statement 'a sad momen.
