“I am even more disappointed that the Government did not respond to the PHSO report nor propose any form of compensation. And in many ways I am more frustrated that Labour as official opposition did not come up with any proposals either.”
The Scottish Parliament approved a motion earlier this month for the women to get “compensation in full” and the SNP has said the women should get compensation.
Mr Brown said he will revive the bill if re-elected. He said: “I would intend to bring it back as a private members’ bill if the Government of the day was still doing nothing.
“Importantly too, the SNP support compensation, so we would work together to garner support.”
WASPI chair Angela Madden told Express.co.uk of her frustration that their efforts to push for Government action have been thwarted as the nation goes to the polls.
She said: “It’s hugely disappointing. We have worked so hard in the two months since the report was published.
“We had begun to perceive a movement with the DWP. We actually had a brief chat with Mel Stride after the Work and Pensions Committee session yesterday [May 22] and were arranging a meeting with his department.
“That was a good thing. All of that now is defunct because there is virtually no Government for the next six weeks, because it will be dissolved.
“All the committees will be dissolved, the bill that Alan Brown was going to put forward will no longer be a bill, because it didn’t get voted on in this Parliament.
“All that will have to start again, all the early day motions, all the things that had been written down that aren’t actually voted into law are defunct.”
Work and Pensions Secretary, Mel Stride, was asked about when he would decide on the WASPI issue this week (May 22) by the Work and Pensions Committee.
He said it was “quite a challenge” for him to weigh up the different aspects of the case for compensation as he looked at the issue.
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