Starmer's problems now go beyond betraying pensioners

Saying one thing to get elected and doing something else after winning worked brilliantly for Keir Starmer... once upon a time.

- JOHN RENTOUL

He became Labour leader with a set of promises that he quietly dropped, before going on to win a landslide in the general election. But it is not proving so easy to shake off the promises he has made on his way to Downing Street.

The latest group to feel betrayed is the Waspi women – those born in the 1950s who say their state pension was “stolen” from them when, in the mid-1990s, the pension age was dramatically raised, from 60 to 65.

Only two and a half years ago, Starmer said: “It’s a real injustice – we need to do something about it.” On Tuesday, Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, announced what the government had decided to do about it: nothing.

This could be defended as a tough but necessary decision – if Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Kendall herself had not given the impression before the election that they would “do something about it”. If they had said in opposition that the women had their sympathy, but that they couldn’t promise anything because the public finances would be tight, they might have got away with it.