A squirming Labour minister denied misleading millions of Waspi women over compensation.
Lucy Powell, in a car crash interview with Sky’s Trevor Phillips, was accused of knowing how much payouts would cost when she campaigned on behalf of pensioners whilst in opposition.
Ministers on Tuesday confirmed they would deny payments to the 3.6 million women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed of the rise in state pension age.
The popular TV host told Ms Powell: “You are in Government now.
“You put your name, when you were in opposition, to a Commons motion supporting this campaign.
“Many of your colleagues were out on the demos supporting them.
“You knew what the numbers were. Why didn’t you tell the women at that point that you weren’t going to be able to find the £10 billion?
The leader of the House of Commons claimed “we didn’t have a commitment in our manifesto”.
But Mr Phillips blasted: “You knew what the scale of it was.”
Squirming Ms Powell then insisted: “I was working in Parliament in 2011 when George Osborne made this big decision to really accelerate bringing forward the pension age for women, which is what really gave rise to this whole campaign.”
The Sky News host then claimed: “You weren’t against George Osborne equalising the pension at all.”
But the Labour minister said: “We absolutely raised concerns at that time about bringing that forward so quickly.
“That was the thing that caused the campaign.
“What we were having to look at was this particular report that was looking at whether there was sufficient communication back in 2004.
“And we accepted that, and that’s why we apologised, that that wasn’t done properly
“But what we didn’t do, and what we couldn’t agree to in the context of the public finances, but also as something that was proportionate to that finding about miscommunication from 2004 was a £10bn price tag.
“I really do understand people’s concern about this.”
The Government’s decision, which has sparked outrage across political divides, came months after Labour stripped up to 10 million pensioners of the winter fuel lifeline.
The parliamentary ombudsman recommended in March compensation of between £1,000 and £2,950 to each of those affected.
But the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign had called for payments of at least £10,000 each.
While the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) could recommend compensation, it could not enforce it.
The Government said it has accepted the watchdog’s finding of maladministration and has apologised for there being a 28-month delay in writing to 1950s-born women.
But it said evidence showed only one in four people remember receiving and reading letters that they were not expecting and that the great majority of 1950s-born women did know that the state pension age was changing.
The Government said a blanket compensation scheme, which could cost taxpayers up to £10.5 billion, cannot be justified.
It would also be impossible to deliver a tailored compensation scheme taking into account individual circumstances that is fair, value for money and feasible, it added.
