Women’s campaign group boss says she feels ‘degraded’
THE Burton boss of a women’s campaign group says she has been left feeling “degraded” and “mortified” at the actions of shamed MP Andrew Griffiths.
May Low, director of the Burton branch of Burton’s Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), also said without his signature they could not forward their complaints letter onto the Parliamentary Ombudsman – which may hinder their support in their national campaign over pension age for certain women.
They now intend to contact the MP to continue their fight.
WASPI was set up after the Government announced it was raising the women’s retirement age from 60 to 65.
In the next two years, this age will rise to 66.
However, some women born in the 1950s claim they were not officially notified of the change –or that it had even been implemented.
They say some women have reached what they thought would be their pensionable age at 60 without knowing that they would be unable to claim their pension until five years later.
If WASPI is successful with its complaint, the Parliamentary Ombudsman can recommend that the Government restore the women who have complained to the same financial position they would have been in before the changes.
Today the branch director said she was shocked by the revelations about the Tory MP after the Sunday Mirror told how he had sent 2,000 texts to Burton barmaid and her pal.
Many of the texts sent over a two-week period were of a vile nature and some talked about violence during sex. The 47-year-old married Tory MP sent 2,000 sleazy texts messages to Winshill barmaid Imogen Treharne, 28, and her pal over a two-week period and married Mr Griffiths even wired them £700 asking for nude pictures and videos in return.
Mrs Low, director of the Burton WASPI, told the Burton Mail: “I am very disappointed in him. As a WASPI director I can say he has met with us a few times. “What the hell is he doing?
“I have every sympathy and respect for his wife because she must be going through absolute hell. How does she cope with it?
“How can any woman go to him for any help and have any respect for him because he hasn’t got any respect for women.”
Referencing a text he sent boasting that he had “met the future King tonight: but thought of you”, Mrs Low said: “I am very upset at how he was with a future king but still finds the time to text.”
She added: “WASPI is now at a really critical stage with the Parliamentary Ombudsman, where does that leave us?
“He was to sign our complaints letter, because without his signature we cannot go. Yes, he said he would give us his signature – but my understanding is that he is away from Burton.
“As someone who has been in the situation of abuse, I feel degraded, disrespected, embarrassed and mortified because I thought he was a gentleman.
“A few weeks ago I was sat in his office and he was showing me photos of his baby and saying how proud he was to be a dad.”