On 10 June, Andy Burnham vowed to support Waspi women; a day later, the U-Turn master has thrown them on the bus (quite literally)

Images of Andy Burnham in front of a big U (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)

By Willem Moore

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