Justice Denied for WASPI Women

Yesterday, the Government confirmed that WASPI women will not receive the compensation they justly deserve. This is a sucker punch for the thousands of women who have tirelessly campaigned for something very simple: fair treatment.

On the basis that a flat-rate compensation scheme ‘would simply not be fair or right,’ this decision runs against the independent Ombudsman which concluded – after a six-year inquiry – that maladministration had caused injustice and those affected should receive compensation. 

Alongside my Liberal Democrat colleagues, I have consistently raised this issue in Parliament, joined more than 100 cross-party MPs in writing to ministers, and pushed for the Ombudsman’s findings to be accepted in full. Instead, the Government has dragged its feet at every stage: denying flat-rate compensation for women in December 2024 before being forced, through the persistence of WASPI women, into an out-of-court settlement in December last year.

That reconsideration gave fresh hope, however today the Government turned its back on as many as 3.6 million women who have lost out because of the Government’s own failings.   

While this will be a shocking day for many, this isn’t the end of the line. After a sequence of broken promises, I will keep pressing ministers to deliver the justice these women deserve.