Key events
We would like to hear from readers who think they may have been affected by the government’s decision not to compensate Waspi women? There is a form where you can contribute here.
Tories say they’re entitled to accuse Labour of betraying Waspi women – even though they may have refused compensation too
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, has claimed that the Tories are entitled to criticise Labour over their decision not to pay compensation to the Waspi women – even though his party may have also done the same.
In an interview with Sky News, he explained:
I think every Waspi woman and campaigner genuinely believed that this government, the Labour government, had they got elected, would do something.
They’d all talked about it: Keir Starmer had talked about it, Angela Rayner talked about it, even Liz Kendall, who yesterday said they weren’t going to do a single thing about it, had talked about it. So it’s a big issue of betrayal.
I’m not sitting here saying we would necessarily have done something about it. That’s fair.
But the point is this government has given everybody the impression that they would, and then they’ve come in, and now they’re saying they wouldn’t. That’s a big issue. I can understand people, particularly the Waspi women, feeling enormously let down by that.
This is misleading. When the the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published a report in March saying Waspi women should get compensation payments worth up to £10bn, Labour (like the government) did not commit to implementing this recommendation, and Liz Kendall, the then shadow work and pensions secretary, did not imply Labour was minded to agree when she responded in the Commons. There was no mention of Waspi women in the Labour manifesto.
The pro-Conservative papers today feature a lot of quotes from Labour cabinet minister backing the Waspi women’s campaign, but mostly these are from 2017 and 2019, when Jeremy Corbyn was leader and the party as firmly committed to paying compensation.
They do also report that Keir Starmer signed a pledge in March 2022 calling for “fair and fast compensation”, and this may be something he gets asked about at PMQs. But this was not something he was promising at the election, and in the past he has justified dropping previous spending pledges made when he was running for Labour leader, or soon after, on the grounds that by the time the election took place, the economic backdrop was different.
Starmer says Trump right to say Europe needs to spend more on defence
In his LBC interview Keir Starmer was also asked a lot about defence. (The interview was conducted yesterday in Estonia, where Starmer was attending a leaders’ summit for the Joint Expeditionary Force, a military partnership.) Starmer has already said he wants to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, but he has not said yet when that will happen. Nick Ferrari asked repeatedly if he would like to go beyond that, to 3%. Starmer just stuck to the line that he would be setting out a “pathway to 2.5%”.
But he also said Donald Trump was right to say Europe should spend more on defence.
We’re having constructive discussions with President-elect Trump. As you know, I met him a number of weeks ago and discussed a number of issues. I do think that when he says that Europe needs to do more, as a general proposition, I think that’s right, and we should do more.
Starmer was also asked about the recent government decision to get rid of some old ships, drones and helicopter, including a frigate like the one he was one yesterday. Asked why he was doing that when equipment was crucial, Starmer replied:
The crew here are very mindful of the fact this is now 33 years old, and they want to move on to the new equipment as soon as they can. But we don’t do our service personnel any favours by using equipment that is many years, in some cases, past its sell-by date.
Starmer defends spending more than 30 days away from UK since taking office
Keir Starmer is back in London today after a two-day trip to Norway and Estonia. In Estonia yesterday he gave an interview to Nick Ferrari from LBC, which was broadcast this morning, and Ferrari told the PM that he had been away from the UK for 31 days since he took office, equivalent to six working weeks, or one in five days. He asked Starmer why he needed to travel so much.
Starmer replied:
I travelled here today because our work with Nato is so important to our country.
If you think about the impact that the conflict in Ukraine has had back at home on our country, it’s been huge. If you think just for a moment, about the risks to the subsea infrastructure in Norway. We had a high-level briefing on the work we’re doing in relation to the cabling of the pipelines that are under the sea and the risk. I have to make sure and be assured that we’ve got the capability to meet the risks to our country.
But also what I’ve been able to do is to make the case for Britain and the investment that’s coming into our country, £63 billion came in in our investment summit, because we’re out there making the case for our country.
And therefore, there’s a direct link between the work that we’re doing internationally and the impact back at home, and it’s very important that that is done.
Back at the health committee, Layla Moran, the chair, asks what the extra £22bn going to the NHS is going to be spent on. She suggests that after inflation, the national insurance increase and pension payments etc, there will be nothing else.
Streeting say some of his reform proposals won’t cost a lot of money. He goes on:
It’s about spending money that we already have more effectively to deliver better outcomes. So, on elective recovery in the waiting list, for example, we see across the NHS teams that are using different ways of organising their clinics to deliver more productivity, more patient throughput, within within the resources that we currently have within the NHS. That is the approach I want to see right across the NHS.
As I’ve said before, if all I did as the secretary of state was to take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS, I’ll have done a hell of a lot of good.
He says he has announced plans for more transparency in the NHS to make it more efficient.
And he says in the past money for the NHS has not always been well spent.
UK inflation hits eight-month high of 2.6%, fuelling calls to hold interest rates
UK inflation has risen to its highest level in eight months, adding to pressure on the Bank of England to keep interest rates unchanged on Thursday despite a slowdown in the British economy, Richard Partington reports.
Streeting tells MPs NHS is seeing ‘winter peak’ pressures earlier this year than normal
Streeting tells the health committee that people need to see “demonstrable improvement” in the NHS by the end of this parliament.
The prime minister has particularly emphasised, through our Plan for Change, the 18 week target from referral to treatment, which we want to achieve by the end of this parliament. W will only be able to do that if we see overall system improvement.
And I want people to feel that it is easier to get access to a GP, for example. I want them to feel more confident that, if they dial 999, an ambulance will reach them in time. And I want them to see through waiting lists and waiting times real improvement.
Layla Moran, the committee chair, asks if people will see improvement this winter. Will the NHS deal with winter pressures better this year than last year?
Streeting does not say yes. Instead he replies:
That depends on the wider contextual factors. For example, we are already seeing pressures this winter, at this moment, that we don’t normally see until winter peak, which as far as I’m concerned, is next month, not this month. So it is challenging.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is giving evidence to the Commons health committee. The hearing is just starting and there is a live feed here.
Reeves says compensating Waspi women not ‘best use of taxpayers’ money’ as backlash grows
Good morning. Keir Starmer is facing his last PMQs of the year and, if he takes a glance at the papers this morning, he will find that he is being attacked by the Tory papers for not implementing a Jeremy Corbyn manifesto promise. Here are two of the headlines about yesterday’s announcement that the government will not compensate the so-called Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women – women who lost out because they were not properly notified about the planned rise in their state pension age.
The Daily Telegraph has not splashed on the story, but it does have it on the front, under the headline “Labour betrays Waspi women with U-turn on pension payouts”. It is true that, when Corbyn was leader, Labour did promise compensation for the Waspi women. But when the parliamentary and health service ombudsman (PHSO) recommended compensation worth up to £10bn in a report earlier this year, Keir Starmer very deliberately did not commit to implementing this, and his manifesto did not promise Waspi compensation.
Starmer is probably comfortable ignoring criticism from the pro-Conservative papers, but he will be more concerned about the fact that the Daily Mirror has taken up this cause too.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has been giving interviews this morning about the latest inflation figures (not great – more here) and she said paying compensation to the Waspi women would not be “the best use of taxpayers’ money”. She said:
I understand that women affected by the changes to the state pension age feel disappointed by this decision, but we looked in full at the ombudsman recommendations and they said that around 90% of women did know that these changes were coming.
And as chancellor, I have to account for every penny of taxpayers’ money spent.
And given that the vast majority of people did know about these changes, I didn’t judge that it would be the best use of taxpayers’ money to pay an expensive compensation bill for something that most people knew was happening.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, gives evidence to the Commons health committee.
Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
4.30pm: Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, gives evidence to the Lords build environment committee on the grey belt.
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