It is becoming increasingly clear that neither the Tories nor the Labour Party have the slightest intention of offering any compensation to the 3.5 million women who have lost up to £50,000 by having to wait an extra six years to get their pension.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow Labour chancellor, has already ruled in advance of the party’s manifesto that there will be no money to pay them while Mel Stride, the outgoing Tory works and pension secretary, is hiding behind examining the paltry Parliamentary Ombudsman’s compensation for partial; compensation, while planning an extra £12 billion benefits cuts to hit the unemployed, sick and disabled.

Rachel Reeves Said: “I recognise that injustice. There are lots of things that a Labour government might like to do, but the state of the public finances and the dire need of our public services means that we won’t be able to do everything that we might like to do.

“Our manifesto will be published shortly, but I’ve said we won’t put forward anything that is not fully costed and we have not set out any money for this.”

Indeed if there is no money for them, will Labour decide there is no money for the contaminated blood victims and the much wronged Post Office sub postmasters or will the Conservatives still keep their pledge to both those groups as they have now promised a raft of tax cuts for the masses and the wealthy.

The answer why the 50swomen have been singled out is because politicians can do this due to the pathetically weak constitutional position of the Parliamentary Ombudsman in this country.

Rob Behrens, the outgoing Parliamentary Ombudsman, first wimped out of making a firm recommendation and left it to MPs and then issued guidelines that would give a maximum of £2,900 to people who have lost tens of thousands. He is now having a whirl of a time in retirement watching Premier League football and travelling the world and participating in conferences as a world leading elder statesman Ombudsman..

The truth is the main parties can dump the 50swomen because the law allows them to ignore any recommendation from the Ombudsman. Just as the Emperor had no clothes, the Parliamentary Ombudsman has no power. So MPs can make nice noises about the plight of the women, but they don’t have to part with the hard cash. The DWP was always opposed to any compensation and Nick Joicey – Rachel Reeves partner – was director of finance there during the Backto60 judicial review which the DWP opposed.

This is exactly what has happened and I put part of the blame on Angela Madden, the leader of the WASPI group, who don’t claim they represent all women, and chose to go down the path of maladministration rather than litigation and have now been dumped by ministers because they know they don’t have to pay them anything.

She has now put up the white flag of surrender announcing that WASPI is closing down its crowdfunding campaign, having spent £500,000 from women’s donations, and achieved practically nothing. I see in a statement from WASPI it plans no further legal action and will just continue lobbying MPs in the new Parliament.

She says: “Unfortunately, that decision will not be made any time soon because Parliament is no longer sitting and no decisions with significant financial implications can be made in the pre-election sensitivity period known as ‘purdah.”

CEDAWinLAW, the successor body to Backto60, which took the legal route by pressing for a judicial review only to be halted by a refusal of the male dominated Supreme Court, to consider the case, has also halted its legal proceedings to force Mel Stride to consider mediation because it couldn’t raise enough money and faced the danger of adverse costs from the DWP for challenging the minister.

As a result there is no legal action against the government even though the legal advice from CEDAWinLAW’s lawyers is that Mel Stride is acting unlawfully by refusing any mediation.

This all leaves the 3.5 million women who could be in a position to influence the general election result, with very little choice to cast their vote.

In Scotland they could vote Scottish National Party as Dr Patricia Gibson, has been a stalwart supporter of compensation for the 50swomen.

She said:” It has become clear that neither the current UK Government nor the incoming Labour Government has any intention of offering any redress or compensation to WASPI women, despite the fact that the Ombudsman’s report was damning about the way this rise in state pension age was undertaken. Neither the Tories nor Labour are willing even to accept the principles of the need for compensation, never mind the urgency, whilst one WASPI women dies every 13 minutes. This is truly shocking..”

She points out that Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, had a law passed to secure his personal pension for life.

Other MPs you can support include Labour left wingers who support compensation and mediation to solve the issue. This includes the former Labour shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and Ian Byrne, Mp for Liverpool, West Derby. In Northern Ireland you can vote for the Democratic Unionist Party who support compensation. Otherwise if you want to you can support George Galloway in Rochdale whose Worker’s Party support compensation for the women. In the rest of the cases it will depend on the individual.

All this is a very sorry end for all the women. who have tirelessly campaigned for years. But Britain’s reputation has been damaged abroad particularly in the United Nations. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women  which Lady Thatcher signed nearly 40 years ago has not been properly implemented in this country and it has taken a keen interest in the plight of the women. Its committee recently decided that Professor Shazia Choudhry, the UK’s nomination to sit on their committee, failed to get elected.

There also will be a permanent historical record of the failure of the main parties to find any compensation for the women and it will remain a blot on the reputation of this country for natural justice and fair play.