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Welcome back. Now, Andy Burnham has
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suggested he would support more than 3.5
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million women born in the 1950s who
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claim they lost thousands of pounds
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after failing to be properly informed of
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the changes to their state pension age.
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The prime ministerial contender has
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indicated he'd pay out billions to the
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so-called WASPI women, a pledge to Kier
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Starmer also made before entering
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Downing Street, but later reneged on.
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Our comment editor Alice Denby joins us
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now. Alice, compensating some hard done
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by pensioners is surely the right thing
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>> No, absolutely not. I mean, I suppose
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the one thing that this proves
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>> The one thing this proves is that Andy
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Burnham is absolutely terrified of women
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of a certain age. So, I suppose I sort
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of appreciate it for that. But no, look,
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do not deserve to be compensated. This
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was a widely advertised change that
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obviously had to happen. It was a result
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of equalizing pension age between men
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and women, something that clearly had to
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Widely advertised, um and these women
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claim that they need money from
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taxpayers because they failed to read
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the news. It's not fair. It's 10 billion
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pounds, which we could be spending on
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defense. It's an absurd priority to
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have. And let's not forget that
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pensioners are one of the richest
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generations in society, already
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extremely well protected by the triple
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lock. Uh one in five of them lives in a
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millionaire household. This is the wrong
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priority for any government to be giving
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>> Enormous real estate growth as well in
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>> It also just I mean, if this does go
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ahead, and I hope it doesn't, and I
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imagine it won't because it's the exact
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sort of thing that can trigger a
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reneging again by every incoming
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government. Um who whoever whoever takes
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uh for different reasons. But it's set
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such an insane precedent for this idea
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that you can have a change. For
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instance, it could be the case that
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millennials who had student loans, and
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they went up 15 years ago, could they
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turn around in like 15 20
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they are turning around as we speak.
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There's a constant uh campaign
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>> I'm much more pro that campaign.
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>> It doesn't mean that things just change.
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It's also worth bearing in mind I
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suppose when we're all factoring
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in for our retirement, we're not
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considering the state pension even
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existing really. I don't know if either
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of you in any way think about that as
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something that will exist in
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>> No, absolutely no. I mean I think
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technically we're supposed to retire at
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68, so already later than these WASPI
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women. But I don't think any of us
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believes that we're not just going to
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continue working as long as we possibly
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can. We all know that the triple lock
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and current pension spending including
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on health and social care is completely
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So I just don't think it's I think it's
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completely unfair for these women to be
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demanding that we of people of working
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age pay for them. I also find it very
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Whenever these people Whenever they find
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spokeswomen for this campaign to go on
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the news, they never ever find one
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that's actually lost out. They always
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have a private pension or
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>> Or they were made to work an extra 3
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>> Yes, I mean tiny violins. Um
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>> Well, I I was also struck I think there
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was one of the warnings from a
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spokeswoman from that campaign group who
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said, "Well, we'll make this the end of
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Labour and we'll we'll we'll vote them
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out." It's like, "What do you think
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comes next?" Like do you think like
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Tories and Reform are going to be more
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>> Well, well Reform might might
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>> Well, they might be in a campaign
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setting. I I can imagine that like the
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>> come down quite hard on them in the end.
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>> I think what troubles me really about
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this is I think it just shows you that
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Andy Burnham is spineless. He's a
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He will capitulate to any kind of noisy
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And I don't think that if he is going to
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be the next Prime Minister this shows
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any evidence he's prepared to take the
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tough decisions that this country
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>> Just finally, can I try and elicit some
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sympathy with you on on this? I think
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like fair enough, I think the
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campaigners for this are a bit mad.
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But it is unfair that frontline
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politicians like Keir Starmer and Andy
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Burnham promised them that there is
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going to be compensation or there's
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they're going to get something and then
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they get into office and they say haha
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Shirazi what? No, you're not. And they
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keep leading these people up the garden
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path and say what you like about how
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sane their demands are, it isn't fair to
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keep saying on the campaign trail that
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yeah, we're going to compensate you and
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and then turn around and say no.
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>> Yeah, I think this is a consequence of
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parties in opposition being childish and
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I think you say the same for the Tories
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when they talk about pensions being
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betrayed over winter fuel etc. I think
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the the thing is you need to be a
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grown-up in opposition.
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>> It's also the problem of party
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memberships voting for leaders
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ultimately. I mean this is the sort of
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thing like you you pitch this kind of
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policy to a membership. This is not
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popular with the public and I think this
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is what happens when a small selectorate
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are picking our frontline politicians.
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>> And with that we thank you Alice Denby
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and we hope you get the maximum pension
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payout when it is time, which is not
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many many years from now, but thank you
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very much for joining us.
