Keir Starmer stung by Waspi women but it’s least of his worries

The blunt truth is it has long been highly unlikely that this government or its Conservative predecessor would pay compensation to women hit by changes to the state pension age.

The institutional failure was less egregious than the Post Office or infected blood scandals, but the potential bill for the government was colossal.

And ministers are not exactly awash with money.

The problem for Sir Keir Starmer is there was a spectacular failure of expectation management.

He can point to it not being a promise in his general election manifesto, just as it wasn’t a promise in the Conservative manifesto either.

But Sir Keir’s words and actions, and those of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves among others, including photos of them with the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaigners, left those campaigners with the impression that Labour was on their side.

But when it came to brass tacks, to financial compensation, they were not.

Labour in opposition could not resist sympathising with those who felt wronged by the government.

And the Waspi campaigners, quite understandably, concluded that their sympathy would mean Labour would pay up.

Accusations of hypocrisy and betrayal are once again blowing through Westminster.

In an era of already hurricane-force political cynicism, these fresh blasts will perhaps dislodge a few more roof tiles of belief that any administration can be trusted.

The Labour front bench looked slumped, slouched and sullen today – the realities of government still proving heavy after less than six months in office.

The cancellation of the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners, announced in July, is still making headlines.

The government has a guiding mission of delivering economic growth, but the economy is shrinking.

And you are almost as likely to see a tractor on Whitehall as you are a red London bus, given how angry some farmers are about the Budget.

Then there are all the businesses and charities squeezed by the hike in employers’ National Insurance.

Perhaps little wonder Nigel Farage and Reform UK feel this is an opportune moment for them to seize, if they can convince voters that neither the Conservatives nor Labour can make a decent fist of making life better.

I was struck at the tone Farage struck in his description of his trip to Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida retreat.

He told me how positive, optimistic and upbeat the whole affair was. The contrast he sought to draw with a gloomy Blighty was not subtle.

And make no mistake, Reform might only have five MPs, but senior folk at the top of both the Labour and Conservative parties look across at them with genuine fear.

Their only solution, in the end, is being able to prove they can deliver.

And yet both here and in other comparable Western democracies, governing in the 2020s looks grindingly difficult.

Any brief notions that Labour’s landslide general election victory would herald a certain serenity at Westminster have long since blown away.

There is every likelihood 2025 will be fractious and angry, with an impatient electorate looking on.