Not one MP in Parliament came to the rescue of Mel Stride, the work and pension secretary, when he made his initial statement on the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report which concluded that there was maladministration over the delay in communicating the six year delay to women in the 1950s and either Parliament or the DWP should compensate them.

Essentially it was a holding statement with the minister emphasising that it was a complex 100 page report which he had to consider very carefully.

“The ombudsman has noted in his report the challenges and the complexities of this issue. In laying the report before Parliament, the ombudsman has brought matters to the attention of the House and we will provide a further update to the House once we have considered the report’s findings.”

He also tried to drag in the judicial review, then pursued by Back to 60, for the reason for the delay in the Ombudsman’s report, citing that the two courts the High Court and the Court of Appeal had presented as fact that the DWP had not acted unlawfully ( no one said they had) over maladministration. The trouble is he got it wrong, the hearings which I attended, were about discrimination in the past not maladministration. As Marcia Will Stewart, the lawyer from Bimberg Peirce, said in 2019 “Our judicial review had nothing to do with maladministration investigation, whatever others may say”. And as she was bringing the case I prefer her analysis to Mel Stride’s.

Indeed Mr Stride’s only other friend in Parliament was Liz Kendall, Labour’s Opposition spokesman, who said:

“This is a serious report that requires serious consideration. The ombudsman has rightly said it is for the Government to respond but that Parliament should also consider its findings.

“Members on this side of the House will look carefully at the report too and continue to listen respectfully to those involved, as we have done from the start.” ( in other words we don’t want to lose your vote in case you think we are siding with Tories).

Tories were not Stride’s best friends

But it was the Tories who, while polite, were not his best friends. None of them defended the government’s delay and all pressed for a decision. It started with Caroline Noakes, who chairs the Women and Equalities select committee, who said:

““I recognise this is an interim update but I would gently press (Mr Stride) that Waspi women have been waiting five years for the ombudsman, they won’t want to wait for a select committee inquiry into this report in order to see action from the Government.”

Soon it became clear that many other Tories, mindful of holding on to their seats, did not want unnecessary delays. Tory MPs representing Stroud, Scunthorpe, North Norfolk, Eastbourne, Waveney, Weston super Mare, Amber Valley and the Isle of Wight were among many who made it abundantly clear they would not brook this being pushed into the long grass.

Bob Seely, the MP for the Isle of Wight, while praising the government for keeping the triple lock, had every reason to be concerned – he has the largest number of 50swomen in his present constituency and foul wind combined with their lack of support ( even if the Island now gets two seats) could sweep him away.

But the government faced its greatest attack from the Scottish National Party who members slammed ministers. Patricia Gibson, their official spokesman and MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, hit out at ” timid Labour” and ministers.

“We in the SNP stand shoulder to shoulder with these women, who have been abandoned and betrayed by the UK Government and the future Labour Government. Will the Secretary of State tell the House what it will take to compensate these women? Do we need another TV drama to embarrass and shame the Government into doing the right thing? “

Other SNP MPs cited deaths of the women in their constituencies and the anger among the women. Ian Blackford, the former Westminster SNP leader said: “Can we imagine what would happen in this place if it was announced that private sector pensions were being put back by six years? Rightly, there would be outrage, and there should be outrage about what happened to the WASPI women.”

Joanna Cherry picked up on Mel Stride and Labour muddying the waters over raising the judicial review

“The WASPI campaign has asked me to emphasise its annoyance about how often Government Ministers, when talking about these issues, attempt to muddy the waters by referring back to the unsuccessful litigation to reverse the increase to the state pension age, or to claim direct discrimination. That was not litigation by the official WASPI campaign, and I am sure that its members were annoyed to hear a senior Labour Front Bencher doing the same thing on the radio last night.”

Labour backbenchers took a much stronger line than their front bench demanding a timetable for the implementation of compensation starting with Marsha de Cordova, representing Battersea.

“The Secretary of State has said that he wants to continue to look in detail at the findings of the report, but surely he should be able to make an unambiguous commitment to compensation for these women.”

Imran Hussain, representing Bradford East said: “Will he at least accept that every time a Minister stands up and says “undue delay” or “due process” they really mean that they have no intention of addressing the problem, and are saving face and kicking the can down the road?

Other criticism came from Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, told him:” we have no confidence in the Department for Work and Pensions to resolve its basic failure of decades ago..”

It will not have been a pleasant experience for Mel Stride who was probably glad Parliament closed for the day after this statement. He would be extremely stupid not to take note but MPs will have to keep up the pressure to get any compensation out of this government. Only the fear of being swept out of power will make them do anything, but whether it be enough money will be another matter.