John Hayes MP: speeches

Speeches

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  With respect, I am going to conclude because I know so many want to speak; I do apologise. [Interruption.] All right, I will briefly give way, but it is the last time.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  I have been in this place a long time, as the hon. Lady knows, and she is here having first been endorsed by the electorate, then rejected, then re-endorsed. I have not had that difficulty myself; none the less, she will know that one learns and grows in this place. As I became more familiar with these arguments—I repeat this—I challenged the Conservative Government, my own party, on this issue, on the record, on the Floor of the House. It is not about this Minister; this is about any Minister who fails to recognise this matter.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  I thank all hon. Members who have contributed to today’s debate. It has shown that the sense of injustice felt by the WASPI women is shared by Members on both sides of the House of Commons. Sadly, however—I am sorry to say this to the Minister—it is not shared by those in the driving seat who are making the decisions.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  Well, it is not for me to second-guess the sentiments of the Prime Minister, but my right hon. Friend is certainly right to say that a number of promises and comments were made. I will talk about them in a little more detail, provoked by his very helpful intervention. I see in the Chamber today the former shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell). He will know that the Labour manifesto in 2019 was fulsome in its support for the WASPI women, promising a generous financial settlement. It is perfectly reasonable to say that parties move on; the new Leader of the Opposition, now the Prime Minister, may have taken a rather different view. He may have taken the opposite view.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  I will just make this point, and then I will happily give way. But that was certainly not the impression given by the current Prime Minister’s remarks. He said: “Justice to end historic injustice”— that was specifically about WASPI women. The now Deputy Prime Minister said that the Government “stole” the pensions of WASPI women and that Labour would compensate them. Therefore, one can understand why the women, some of whom are represented here today—they are being incredibly diligent and quiet, Dr Murrison, you will be pleased to know—feel that this was indeed a “betrayal”, to use the word that I used at the beginning of my remarks. An expectation was established, and then it was blighted by the decision made since the general election.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  I meant no slight on the hon. Gentleman. He is right: it does affect women across the whole of the kingdom—and of course, he is much posher than bourgeois, so he could not be slighted by my remark.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  That is what inspires me to speak today and, I am sure, inspires the hon. Gentleman, who is about to intervene to say just how much he supports me.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  I will in a second. That suggestion seems to me to be a pretty modest response. It is not extreme, extravagant, unrealistic or unreasonable. It is a modest, measured response borne of the fact that the ombudsman has found maladministration. I have read the two reports. Having been in this House for a long time, been on the Front Bench of my party for 19 years and been a Minister in many Departments, I have rarely seen an ombudsman’s report as clear as this one about maladministration by a Government Department. On that note, I give way.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  Yes, I agree. Some women were forced to carry on working, even when—as an earlier intervention suggested—they were not really in a position to do so, even when they had extra responsibilities, and even when they were not really fit to do so. That is just not acceptable. It is not right; it is not just.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Minister to his place; I appreciate that this debate is his first outing and his comments about the timing are well made. However, the WASPI campaigners have never made that case; they have never said that they were against the equalisation. What they said, and rightly so, is that they were not properly informed and that is precisely what the then ombudsman confirmed in his report. Will the Minister just answer this simple question? The ombudsman said that he felt it was unlikely the DWP would respond to his report—it was sad that he should have to say that. The ombudsman proposed—unusually, in his words—that the matter be laid before Parliament. Will the Minister use his endeavours to ensure Parliament gets to vote on the ombudsman’s recommendations?

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  I had alluded a moment ago to the choices that Government make about how they spend money. Of course it is true that Government priorities will determine where money is spent. The issue is clearly not a priority for the Government. It is difficult, of course: Governments face all sorts of challenges that require investment, and this Government have chosen not to invest in this area. Frankly, it is as plain as that.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  Having said that, I am happy to give way to the hon. Gentleman. [ Laughter . ]

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  Yes. My right hon. Friend is a refined Member of this House. To make a more refined argument in tune with his, I should say that the ombudsman’s report is, as he suggests, to Parliament. It is for Parliament to discuss, debate and make a decision on. The ombudsman’s report is about Government, but it is, exactly as he describes, to Parliament. I am grateful to him for refining my argument in that way.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way to me for a second time. To be clear about this: there are two issues at stake here—how many women knew, and how communications would have affected that. The fact of the matter is that the ombudsman’s report—I have it in my hand—says “Research reported in 2004 showed that only 43% of all women affected by the 1995 Pensions Act knew their State Pension age was 65, or between 60 and 65.” That is a clear majority of women who did not know. Therefore the only debate is whether communicating with them would have been effective. As my hon. Friend the Member for East Wiltshire (Danny Kruger) said, if it would not have been effective, what is the point in Government communicating at all?

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady’s intervention, though not pithy, was pertinent, because she is one of the 3.8 million women, of all kinds and types, who were affected. Many were not well-off; many did all kinds of jobs that could not be described as highly paid; and many found themselves in a position of financial hardship. That is why I stand here today—because this injustice affects all kinds of women, and it has been mischaracterised by some who do not want to face that fact. That makes me angry and righteously indignant, as I always am in the cause of the disadvantaged.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  Although that intervention was not orchestrated by me or choreographed by either of us, it leads me neatly to my next point, because there is an ethical case to be made of the kind the hon. Lady describes, there is a constitutional case to be made, and there is a practical case to be made. In the short time available to me—I know that many others want to contribute to the debate—I will try to make all three. First, the ethical case is, exactly as the hon. Lady said, about honouring the pledges that were made and fulfilling rightful expectations. Not all expectations and hopes are well founded, but when people have worked all their lives and been told that at the end of their working life, they will be paid a pension at a particular time, it is not unreasonable for them to believe that that will come to pass.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  No—forgive me, but my time is very short. I sincerely hope that we will get a parliamentary vote on this issue and I will use every endeavour to ensure that we do. The WASPI women deserve better than the explanation we heard today, which was essentially somewhere between, “We’re not sure that their case is justified, because we think that most of them did know,” and, “We can’t afford it even if their case is justified.” Frankly, neither of those arguments will wash. The Minister, who is, as I said earlier, a decent man, must know that, just as the Prime Minister certainly feigned to know it before the general election. The question must therefore be asked, did the Prime Minister not know or did he not care? Was he careless about the support that he offered the WASPI women or did he not know what the Minister has just said? I end with Winston Churchill, because I can do no better. He said: “There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away. The British people can face peril or misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy, but they bitterly resent being deceived”. This is deceit—nothing less, nothing more. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered compensation for women affected by changes to the State Pension age.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  There are several arguments used by those who do not want to get it right, to use my hon. Friend’s term. One is that the public do not care, although all the survey evidence suggests the opposite: that 75% of people think that WASPI women should be treated fairly. Another argument is that it will be too expensive. I could make all kinds of rather spiteful remarks about the Government’s decisions about public sector pay, but I will let them stand as a contradiction, without adding to them.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  If I might make a little progress, then I will happily give way. It is important to set out some of the detail. Some of the worst-affected women received just 18 months’ notice of a six-year increase in their state pension age. Just under 2 million women fall into that category. The WASPI campaigners acknowledge that some were going to retire only a matter of days, or perhaps weeks, later than expected, whereas those who were given very long notice were clearly in a rather different circumstance. The campaigners are not unrealistic about that. Having met them and discussed it, I know that they are very realistic about the difference between those two groups, and they therefore simultaneously recognise that the Government response needs to be tailored, and measured in the way it gauges the responsibility. The breach in trust is common, but the effect of that breach in trust is different in different cases. I do not advocate a response to this problem in which every single case is dealt with individually, so that there are as many different settlements as individuals. That would be impractical and delayed, and I emphasise delay because one of these women dies every 12 minutes. There will be another WASPI woman lost during the course of my speech. That is the reality. These bald statistics mask lives—lives altered, lives damaged and lives restricted by this matter.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  That brings me to the constitutional point that I said I would make. I have established an ethical case, but there is a constitutional issue about the ombudsman. Over the years, we have developed a number of ways of holding the Executive to account. Parliament does that, of course, but there needs to be other means of doing so on particular and specific issues. That is why the Select Committee system emerged: as a way of studying what the Government were doing and making recommendations accordingly. That is also how ombudsmen began. They are an additional mechanism through which Government can be held to account, but for Select Committees and ombudsmen to have meaning, they must have teeth.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  That is a measured intervention, and I thank the hon. Gentleman for it. It is true that a package could be put together and discussed with the campaign group and the women concerned; one would expect Government to do that. As a Minister, I would have had submissions. I have no doubt that this Minister has had them, and the Secretary of State must have had submissions that gave her options, before she said what she said when she let the WASPI women down. Those options would no doubt have included a series of ways through this. I know the Minister will be eager to explore those options with us when he sums up the debate. I have no doubt about that because he is a diligent and decent man; he will not want to betray those women again in what he says today because he is not that kind of character.

• 19 Dec 2024 · Hospice Funding · Hansard source

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  We can all agree that hospices, such as St Barnabas in Lincolnshire, do vital and valued work. I hope we can also all agree that every Government—Labour and Tory—have increased national health spending, for that is simply a matter of fact. I ask the Minister to show a little wisdom in contrition in acknowledging that the national insurance increase that was imposed on charities and hospices has done immense damage. We welcome the funding today—of course we do—but she needs to be straightforward: was she, or any of the Health team, consulted before the Budget about the impact of the NI increase on hospices, health charities, pharmacies and so on? May I advise her to put down the folder and tell us what she really thinks?

• 19 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Mindful of the Leader of the House’s advice, I am suitably booted, I am speaking through the Chair and, of course, I have Chorley imprinted on my heart. In that spirit, may I ask the Leader of the House for a debate on the WASPI women? I know she has said we can apply for a debate, and I was going to ask for something quite different, but given what the hon. Members for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) and for Dundee Central (Chris Law) have said, it is essential that when we have an ombudsman report of such seriousness—I have rarely seen one like it in my time in this House—we have the chance to debate it. If the Leader of the House does not offer a debate, I will apply to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, immediately following business questions.

• 19 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am extremely grateful— [ Interruption. ] Oh, I beg your pardon.

• 19 Dec 2024 · Crown Prosecution Service: Support for Victims · Hansard source

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  You will know, Mr Speaker, that Edmund Burke said: “Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society”, but injustice reigns when victims feel that the cause of their plight is being neglected. Such was the case in Sutton Bridge, where a constituent of mine, a six-year-old girl, suffered the dreadful event of indecent exposure. The man was known in the community and was reported by the father of the child, and CCTV footage was available. When crimes of that kind are not investigated properly, people lose their faith in justice. We must deal with those crimes, in the interests of the very justice that Edmund Burke recommended.