Waspi women now abandoned by Andy Burnham

Andy U-Turnham has already abandoned the Waspi women

On Wednesday 10 June, Andy Burnham vowed to support the Waspi women in the strongest terms possible. Now, a day later, he has made it clear his ‘support’ doesn’t amount to much:

NEW: Burnham *rules out* awarding financial compensation to Waspi women demanding billions of pounds, following an angry backlash within Labour

Greater Manchester mayor has instead floated the idea of offering early access to cheaper travel schemes as recompense…

— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) June 11, 2026

Waspi women

The ‘Waspi’ acronym stands for ‘Women Against State Pension Inequality’. In the group’s own words, Waspi is:

A Campaign group for 1950s* born women who saw rapid and steep increases to their State Pension age without adequate notice. In March 2024, the Ombudsman found this to be maladministration and instructed Parliament to deliver compensation as quickly as possible. WASPI continues to work cross-party to see justice delivered for the 3.6 million women affected.

Here’s what Burnham said in a Makerfield hustings event on Wednesday (emphasis added):

I stick by campaigners that I support. I stuck by the Hillsborough families, I’ll stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness.

Burnham also said politicians who get into government but don’t “do anything” make him feel “uncomfortable”.

Although Burnham didn’t say the “recompense” would come in the form of cash, most assumed he meant that. After all, it would be a big slap in the face to hint at a financial settlement and then offer cheap bus tickets, right? And Burnham wouldn’t be foolish enough needlessly piss the group off, would he?

Well, according to his spokesperson:

Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced.

“As Mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported WASPI women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits.

“He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model.

Cheap bus passes it is then.

And now, Burnham has pissed off a group which is promising to “unseat” Labour in the next election unless it gets the £10bn compensation they want.

Andy U-Turnham

As far as we can tell, Burnham backtracked because of a backlash from Labour politicians. As Lucy Fisher of the Financial Times reported:

One government figure decried Burnham’s hint about a major compensation spending pledge as “pathetic”, adding: “He can’t say no to anyone.”

A Starmer ally suggested Burnham’s move was Corbynite, adding: “Keir literally won by not being this version of the Labour party.”

Another MP said:

I see Andy Burnham has lost the plot again.

Here’s the thing, though, the Starmer government is actually very unpopular, and it certainly didn’t win in 2024 because of its opposition to the Waspi women. As such, Burnham has every reason to go against the status quo. Yet again, though, he’s backed down because people got angry and the man has no guiding light beyond people liking him.

It’s not the first policy he’s proven to be wishy-washy on either:

At this point, Andy Burnham and Keir Starmer are u-turning so rapidly we could wire them up to the national grid.

Featured image via Anthony Devlin (Getty Images)

Tags: Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)Labour Party

Comments 4

Paul F says:

1 month ago

I been watching some of the ‘World In Action’ reports recently. Series 27/Episode 37 about the Docklands redevelopment at the time is a shing example of how journalism in the past involved the actual people affected by these events and cut through government spin to expose the facts behind the redevelopment.
What is striking is that journalism now seems to be a ‘he said, she said’ list of statements by politicians/organisations rather than an investigation into the effects of policy on the people affected and an exposé of the actual facts of the matter.
What do the Waspi women think? How are their day to day lives affected by government policy? What is the truth behind government policy statements? And how is Burnham’s u-turn part of an ongoing duplicitous political establishment?
There are many shining examples of journalism from the past (and some shit ones too) that really should inspire, inform and instruct journalists today.
What do YOU think?

Paul F says:

1 month ago

P.S. This is not a criticism of The Canary or this article in particular but a general observation about how journalism seems to have become dominated by the views of political talking heads and other people with power such as business people and bureaucrats.
I realise that the establishment has become adept at controlling the talking points which has been facilitated by the domination of social media and online discourse.
I’m interested in how journalism was conducted before the internet. Before it was possible to copy and paste highly curated establishment sound bites. And before the vox pop became dominated by social media posts of dubious origin rather than the interviewed voices of those involved in a conflict of interests.
Perhaps journalists today would benefit from looking back and learning from journalistic practice from the past? There has to be a way to cut through all the spin and dissembling that has come to dominate MSM news and allowed lies to take over social media.

Judith Robertson says:

1 month ago

Just to say that not all waspi women in greater manchester got free travel. Only up to 1954 born then it stopped.

Winstanly says:

1 month ago

Most politicians tell lies because they know they can get away with it, then they are accused of doing u turns, and then life goes on and nothing gets done and until something does get done they will continue telling lies .