ANDY Burnham “has broken the Labour U-turn world record” after his climbdown on Waspi compensation, it has been claimed.
The potential challenger to the Prime Minister is accused of “outpacing even Keir Starmer” after he walked back suggestions he would seek “recompense” for women affected by changes to the state pension age.
At a hustings on Wednesday night, the Makerfield by-election candidate, who has made clear he will challenge Starmer for the premiership if elected, said he would “stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness”.
It raised the prospect the UK Government would shell out as much as £10 billion, as recommended by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, if Burnham took the reins.
Burnham said: “I have long supported the campaign and I feel uncomfortable when politicians were all holding up their banner and then got into government and didn’t do anything.
“So I stick by the campaigns that I support. I stuck by the Hillsborough families and I will stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness.”
But the Manchester Mayor later walked back his comments and said that the issue of compensation, ruled out by Labour once the party came to power, had been settled.
A spokesperson for Burnham said: “Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced.
“As Mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits.
“He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model.”
SNP MSP Clare Haughey said: “Andy Burnham has broken the Labour U-turn world record, out pacing even Keir Starmer, in his complete betrayal of Waspi women – he didn’t waste a single second.
“He is just the latest in a long line of Labour politicians who abandon their principles the minute they get within a whiff of power – it is shameful.
“The SNP will always back Waspi women in Scotland we will not stop until the UK Labour government get a grip and pay these women the compensation they deserve.”
The Waspi campaign argues that women born in the 1950s should be compensated for receiving inadequate notice of a change in the law in 1995 that increased their state pension age from 60 to 65, bringing it in line with the pension age for men.
