City MP Stephen Morgan has criticised the Prime Minister’s decision to decline a meeting with local representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign.
Last month Mr Morgan joined representatives of Solent WASPI to deliver an open letter signed by Portsmouth people to Downing Street.
The letter called for the Prime Minister to meet with WASPI to find a fair remedy to the injustice against them.
The WASPI group campaigns for fair and fast compensation for 1950s-born women affected by the failure of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to communicate the increase in the State Pension age from 60 to 66.
There are an estimated 9,000 WASPI women across Portsmouth, with over 3.6 million affected women across the country.
This week, a Government Minister wrote to Mr Morgan on behalf of the Prime Minister to decline a meeting with the campaigners.
Commenting, Portsmouth South’s Stephen Morgan MP, said:
“I was pleased to join Solent WASPI to call on the government to meet with local women to discuss a fair resolution for all those affected.
“It is very disappointing that despite the efforts of Solent WASPI and many women across Portsmouth, the Prime Minister has chosen not to even dignify them with a response, instead asking a junior minister to reply on his behalf, and to refuse a meeting.
“The least the Prime Minister or his ministerial team could do is to listen to concerns especially at a time when the cost of living crisis is taking its toll on women and their families in our city.”
Solent WASPI Coordinator, Shelagh Simmons, said:
“We are grateful to Stephen Morgan for pressing the Prime Minister to meet with WASPI representatives. It is extremely disappointing, and disrespectful to the thousands of Portsmouth women affected by this State Pension injustice, that there should be such a dismissive response.
“We have recently reached the sad and shocking national milestone of 250,000 women dying without getting justice. WASPI women are sick and tired of the Prime Minister hiding behind an Ombudsman’s investigation that has now been going on for five years.”
Mr Morgan has been a tireless campaigner committed to ending the pension injustice women in Portsmouth have faced, raising issues in Parliament, lobbying Ministers, hosting public meetings and events and pressing for a solution to the issues the WASPI campaign has highlighted.
