Ed Balls has slammed Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves for betraying WASPI women, taking particular aim at Labour’s total lack of political nous handling the affair.
The former Labour Shadow Chancellor, who is married to current Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, attacked his party for ‘failing to grip difficult issues’ and ‘inflicting another problem on themselves’ and ‘needlessly raising expectations’.
Speaking with George Osborne on their podcast Political Currency, Balls said in disbelief: “What are they {the government] doing? What did they expect? They can’t blame Sue Grey for this one.”
It comes after Labour announced last week there would be no compensation for women born in the 1950’s who claim they were not informed their pension age was changing from 60 to 66.
This was after an independent ombudsmen recommended compensation should be paid out, something Labour say would cost £10billion and is unaffordable given the nation’s finances.
But angry women born in the 1950’s have highlighted the fact many Labour cabinet ministers including the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall backed the WASPI campaign in opposition, criticising the Tories for not paying out.
Balls, 57, reminisced how as Shadow Chancellor in the 2010’s he did not commit to reversing the Conservatives’ decision to raise the state pensione age because Labour was being sensible and responsible opposition.
Talking with podcast co-host George Osborne who was Chancellor at the time, Balls said: “In the period of 2015, you changed the state pension age.
“There was some outcry. Rachel Reeves, as shadow Work and Pensions, persuaded you to make some changes.
“I, as shadow chancellor, made no commitment ever to go back and reverse what you were doing.
“We knew while there details which were controversial, the underlying reality was this was something which was consensual.
“And that's where we were. Responsible, sensible opposition realising that it's not going to pick up the tab for the WASPI campaign.
“Then, in 2019, within the general election campaign, Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader suddenly decides to back the WASPI campaign, reverse the whole thing. As you say, [committing] tens of billions of pounds.”
George Osborne and Ed Balls run the podcast Political CurrencyPABalls explains this was because Labour was polling badly and going to lose the 2019 election. Backing the WASPIs was seen as a way to win votes.
The crucial thing is what happened after Corbyn had gone as Labour leader, as Balls explained: “Jeremy Corbyn goes. Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer and others don't.
“The WASPI campaign continues to rumble around. As you say, an Ombudsman report says there was a case of compensation.
“And Liz Kendall, before the 2024 election, says we will need to look carefully at the Ombudsman's report in government.
“There's no manifesto commitment to do anything either way. She's just said she’s going to look at it.
“In no sense does Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor, or Keir Starmer shut the WASPI compensation claim down.
“They don't go back on the 2019 commitment to the WASPIs, nor do they put it in lights they're going to compensate them. It's just parked as ‘we're going to assess this’.
“And then this week, out of the blue, with no pitch rolling at all, with no preparation, they announce there will be no compensation.”
Balls, who presents ITV’s Good Morning Britain, then attacked Labour’s timing of the announcement in a brutal takedown.
The former Strictly Come Dancing star said: “I mean, this is essentially a Treasury decision, really, as much as a DWP decision.
“At a time when compensation is happening for post office workers, the Horizon scandal, there's compensation for contaminated blood victims. The government has announced it's going to do compensation for LGBT members of the armed forces who lost their jobs.
“Suddenly, out of the blue, they announce there's not going to be compensation for WASPI women. And it's carnage.
“All these Labour MPs who posed with these placards campaigning for WASPI women, suddenly they're told there'll be nothing.
“This is a problem for Labour, because Labour have raised expectations. Kemi Badenoch gets to say in Prime Minister's Questions this week; ‘I never did that. You're the guys who misled people.’
"If you’re a Labour MP, you might be going to a pensioner's Christmas lunch soon.
“You might be just going into the town centre and meeting people in the streets. You're going to be meeting women in their 60s, WASPI women, pillars of the community. The people who have grandchildren, have elderly relatives, have organised a pensioner's Christmas lunch, who are all going to be coming up to you and saying, ‘I don't want a mince pie. How come you suddenly decided not to do any compensation for people like me, people who've lost out?’
Liz Kendall is under fire for her previous support for the Waspi campaign PA / WASPI / LIZ KENDALL “And, of course, this is happening in the same week people would have got their winter fuel allowance. And I think it's just landed from nowhere.
“Now, I'm not saying we should be doing the Ombudsman's report and doing up to £10 billion for compensation.
“Although, to be honest, if you have an independent Ombudsman report who says do something, it does cause you a bit of a problem.
“But if you say nothing, and then announce you're going to do nothing, then it's not surprising people get very upset and angry and feel as though they've been betrayed.
“Because they were told this could be looked at in government, and you've got now scores, potentially triple figures, of Labour MPs saying, ‘what's happened?’
“You’ve got Scottish Labour MPs, who've got Scottish elections coming up in 15 months' time, saying first the winter fuel allowance, now this.
“If you're going to do nothing, you have to have said that years ago. You have to have said that before the manifesto.
“You’ve got to differentiate between people affected by contaminated blood or the post office scandal or LGBT people who lost their jobs or nuclear test veterans, they're different from WASPI women.
“There must be some principles which you set out which allow people to see who's going to get compensation or not."
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Balls then attacked Labour for leaving a policy vacuum around WASPI women.
“But if you leave a policy vacuum for years around WASPI women, it's no surprise, the political response to that is big,” he said.
“Do not underestimate how much this is going to roll.
"To say something like this out of the blue, to say ‘you are illegitimate in your concerns’ to someone you stood with on the campaign trail and backed, I mean, where's the politics?
“You cannot blame Sue Gray for this one.
“This is about central communications and political strategy. It's about whether the number 10 and the Treasury are gripping difficult issues coming down the track before they blow up in front of you.
“And the idea that you do it the week before Christmas at the same time you're taking the winter allowance away from women in their 60s who are the absolute galvanising stalwarts of the community and then think, ‘how did this happen?’ I mean, what are they up to?
“The thing I would say about the end of the year for Keir Starmer is it's been tough. The polls are challenging, and the economy has been bad for them.
“They've made some mistakes, but it is fixable. They've got to stop these self-inflicted problems. It’s what you do if you govern well, you grip.”
Labour argues a survey from 2006 showed 90 per cent of women in the relevant age group knew about the planned state pension age changes.
It also says there is “evidence on the ineffectiveness of unsolicited letters that the ombudsman did not take properly into account”.
Ministers also claim the country can’t afford compensation and that it would be: “impossible to deliver a tailored compensation scheme taking into account individual circumstances that is fair, value for money and feasible”.
The Liberal Democrats are expected to force a vote on the WASPI compensation with their upcoming opposition day in 2025.
Like when the Conservatives forced a vote on changes to farmers’ inheritance tax last month, the vote would force many Labour MPs who have publicly backed the WASPIs in opposition to publicly vote against their compensation.
