The government has said it won’t be compensating women hit by changes to the state pension age, despite years of a campaigning and a watchdog recommending payouts for those affected. Meanwhile, the home secretary faces questions from MPs. Follow for live updates.
Tuesday 17 December 2024 16:10, UK
The Home Office has ordered another seven asylum hotels to close.
Yvette Cooper said there had been progress on bringing down the significant backlog of asylum cases, as she revealed the directive to the Commons Home Affairs Committee.
The seven hotels “should be closing in the new year,” she revealed.
“We are determined to keep making progress.”
By Alix Culbertson, political reporter
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is giving evidence to MPs on the Justice Committee this afternoon.
She’s been asked why prisoners who committed actual and grievous bodily harm, and are domestic abusers, were allowed to be released early as part of a scheme to relieve overcrowded prisons.
The justice secretary tells MPs there is no actual domestic abuse offence, and she has asked the sentencing review to look into that.
Decisions made ‘at breakneck speed’
She says, by law, they could only stipulate which offences should be included in the early release scheme – not “cohorts”.
And she says she had to make the decision to release prisoners early “in days”.
“It was very much breakneck speed and any delay by choosing a different path, by moving primary legislation [to make domestic abuse a crime], could have meant September and by that point, we would have run out of prison places,” she told the committee
“That would have been the end of law and order in this country.”
A week after Labour won the election, they announced they would release thousands of prisoners after only serving 40% of their fixed-term sentences rather than the usual 50%.
More than 3,100 prisoners have been let out of jail in England and Wales under the scheme, which started in September.
By Alix Culbertson, political reporter
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced crown courts will be able to sit for an extra 2,000 days until the end of April.
She said she had managed to find funding over the “last day or so” to add those days, which will bring the number of sitting days across crown courts in England and Wales to 108,500 this financial year.
There are currently 73,000 cases waiting to be heard after the backlog grew significantly during and since the pandemic.
Ms Mahmood told the Justice Committee getting the backlog down is “an absolute priority”.
She warned the backlog is going to get bigger as demand for cases coming in are far outstripping those being heard, which is why she has asked Sir Brian Leveson to undertake a review to reform the court system.
“You have to reassess what justice means. Justice delayed is justice denied,” she told MPs.
Watch a special report by our correspondent Ashna Hurynag on the impact court delays are having on victims and the justice system:
The government’s decision not to award any compensation to women impacted by changes to the state pension age, despite a watchdog recommending they do so, has gone down very badly indeed.
Our chief political correspondent Jon Craig notes the money-saving move, defended by the work and pensions secretary and the prime minister as sparing the taxpayer from a multibillion-pound payout, is a total reversal of Labour’s position from just a few years ago.
‘Shame!’
Back in 2019, then shadow chancellor John McDonnell “promised a £58bn package of compensation for these women” – and the now work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, went to an event where she vowed support for a “fair solution for all women affected”.
Fast-forward four years and there was “nothing in the Labour manifesto”, notes Jon, but confirmation today they indeed wouldn’t offer any compensation has caused “a lot of anger”.
There were shouts of “shame” in the Commons when the announcement was made, Jon noticed. Indeed, it’s something that’s gone down badly across the House of Commons.
By Tomos Evans, Wales reporter
The former leader of the Welsh Conservatives has said the proposed names of new constituencies in Wales “will disenfranchise English-only speakers”.
Andrew RT Davies, who resigned after narrowly winning a confidence vote a fortnight ago, said the move was “quite wrong”.
What’s going on?
The boundaries and names of Senedd constituencies are currently the subject of a consultation.
At the moment, there are 60 members of the Welsh parliament, but that’s set to increase to 96 at the next election in 2026.
The current system of electing members to 40 constituencies and five regions will be replaced by 16 larger constituencies. Each constituency will elect six members to represent that area in Cardiff Bay.
“While it may suit some parts of Wales to have Welsh-only names, places like the Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend are majority English-speaking and the constituency names should reflect this,” Mr Davies said.
Twelve of the 16 proposed names are Welsh-only, but in some cases, such as Bangor and Conwy, there is no English equivalent.
‘Very open to further changes’
A spokesperson for Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru said legislation states a single name must be used for constituencies, unless that would be considered “unacceptable”.
“In developing these proposed names, the commission took the view that in most cases, monolingual names would be acceptable,” the spokesperson added.
They said the commission “remains very open to making further changes depending on the feedback we receive”.
The consultation closes on 13 January.
Campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith (the Welsh Language Society) said it was “pleased” with the proposals.
“Welsh is the unique national language of Wales, and we should be proud of it, use it and promote it so that seeing and hearing Welsh words and place names becomes normal,” vice-chair Sian Howys said.
Sir Keir Starmer is in Estonia for defence meetings with fellow northern European leaders.
While he was there, he swung by HMS Duke, which is currently in Tallinn, Estonia, to meet the crew, discuss their mission, and eat some mince pies ahead of Christmas, which most will spend deployed away from their families.
Here are some pictures of the visit…
Nigel Farage and the Reform UK treasurer, Nick Candy, met Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago yesterday, the party has confirmed.
In a statement, the duo said they had a “great meeting” that lasted for an hour.
“We learned a great deal about the Trump ground game and will have ongoing discussions on other areas,” they said.
Echoing the language of Liz Truss, they added: “We only have one more chance left to save the West, and we can do great things together.
“Our thanks also to President Trump for allowing us to use Mar-a-Lago for this historic meeting. The special relationship is alive and well.”
The meeting comes following reports – dismissed by Mr Farage – that the billionaire Tesla owner was plotting a donation to Reform.
Mr Farage and Mr Candy told our political editor Beth Rigby last week that they’d welcome financial support from Mr Musk, but no such discussions had yet taken place.
You can watch that lively interview in full below:
Sir Keir Starmer is in Estonia for a meeting with fellow leaders about defence and to visit British troops stationed in the region.
He spoke to broadcasters while he was there, and was asked about the decision not to compensate Waspi women and if he understands their fury.
He replied: “I do understand their concerns. The ombudsman’s findings were clear in relation to maladministration, but also clear about the lack of direct financial injustice, as the ombudsman saw it.
“That’s why we’ve taken the decision that we’ve taken.
“But I do understand, of course, the concern of the Waspi women.
“But also I have to take into account whether it’s right at the moment to impose a further burden on the taxpayer, which is what it would be.”
We’ve just had a statement from the chair of the Waspi women campaign, and she has hit out at the government for announcing that no compensation will be paid.
In case you’re unaware of the Waspi women – they are women born in the 1950s who were hit by a change in the state pension age.
Angela Madden said: “The government has today made an unprecedented political choice to ignore the clear recommendations of an independent watchdog, which ordered ministers urgently to compensate Waspi women nine months ago.
“This is a bizarre and totally unjustified move, which will leave everyone asking what the point of an ombudsman is if ministers can simply ignore their decisions.”
‘MPs must force this issue’
She continued: “It feels like a decision that would make the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump blush.
“The idea that an ‘action plan’ to avoid such mistakes in future should be the result of a six-year Ombudsman’s investigation is an insult both to the women and to the PHSO process.
“An overwhelming majority of MPs back Waspi’s calls for fair compensation, and all options remain on the table. Parliament must now seek an alternative mechanism to force this issue on to the order paper so justice can be done.”
The Labour government has refused to pay compensation to Waspi women who were impacted by changes to the state pension age.
That’s despite a watchdog report recommending such action.
Who are the Waspi women?
In the mid-1990s, the government passed a law to raise the retirement age for women over a 10-year period to make it equal with men.
The coalition government then sped up the timetable as part of its cost-cutting measures.
How have they been impacted by the change?
The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign group said millions suffered financially as a result, as they were not given enough warning by the government to prepare for the changes to their retirement date.
The group began a long campaign to seek compensation for the women affected – namely those born in the 1950s.
‘A day of shame’
After a five-year investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), the watchdog sided with them, saying not only did the Department for Work and Pensions fail to communicate the changes properly, they also didn’t investigate complaints properly.
The PHSO has suggested the Waspis should now receive compensation, but the recommendation was not legally binding, and it was for the government to decide.
After the election got in the way of the Tories having to make the call, it instead fell to Labour – and they’ve decided not to act.
The Lib Dems described it as a “day of shame for the government”.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
