MPs applaud as Philip Hammond's budget disturbed by 'angry' WASPI protest
Opposition MPs stand and clap the efforts of the protesters after the chancellor outlined his economic plans in parliament.
Wednesday 31 October 2018 07:14, UK
Philip Hammond's budget was disturbed by "angry" campaigners staging a House of Commons protest against state pension changes.
Some 80 members of the Women Against the State Pension Inequality (WASPI) group held up banners and banged on the glass screen of the Commons' public gallery on Monday.
As the chancellor sat down after outlining his economic plans to parliament, opposition MPs stood and applauded the efforts of the protesters.
SNP MP Hannah Bardell risked breaching strict parliamentary rules on photography by posting a video of the scene on Twitter.
She praised the group for "making their voice heard".
The WASPI campaign began in 2015 to fight against the "unfair way" in which the state pension age was equalised between men and women.
They claim women's retirement plans have been "shattered with devastating consequences" as a result of the legislation passed in both 1995 and 2011.
An estimated 3.9 million women born in the 1950s have been affected by the changes.
Anne Keen, co-founder of the WASPI group, said: "We only want what we're entitled to. We're angry, we've been betrayed and we're not going to go away until this is resolved, we will not be silenced.
"Our mantra from now on is deeds not words. We want action from the government on this."
Cheryl Sloan, a WASPI regional organiser, added the group had "waited to see" if Mr Hammond would mention pensions in his budget speech.
"He didn't. It's the same old same old, they're totally ignoring us," she said.
"We were banging on the window shouting 'shame on you'. We had many more banners and posters to wave but we were frisked on the way in.
"Politicians need to realise that we are not going to go away, we will keep making our voice heard.
"All we want is what we're owed, we've lost £48,000 on average because of this. It's not right."
Labour MP Chris Bryant also posted a photo of the protest on Twitter, writing: "Scandalous that the budget did nothing today for women who paid their dues and were short changed."
His party leader Jeremy Corbyn decried how "there was not even a recognition of, let alone money set aside for, the women born in the 1950s who have been denied pension justice".
The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford claimed it was "disappointing in some respects that the statement this afternoon was affected by a protest in the gallery".
However, he added the protest was "very much in the spirit of the suffragettes".
A glass partition between the Commons' public gallery and the rest of the chamber was erected at a cost of £1.4m after an incident in 2004 when condoms full of purple flour were thrown at Tony Blair during Prime Minister's Questions.
It prompted an evacuation of the Commons by MPs, with the Fathers 4 Justice campaign group claiming responsibility.