‘Whiners’ need to get on without pensions says Widdecombe

CONTROVERSIAL politician Ann Widdecombe accused some women angry at changes to the pension age of being “whingers and whiners” and said being 71 had not stopped her applying for a job as an MEP.

Ms Widdecombe was speaking in Gloucester on the eve of her election to the European Parliament for The Brexit Party.

She said: “They say it’s not fair but whenever you change something you will get one group just past the line and another group just under the line.”

Women Against State Pension Inequality say tens of thousands of women expecting to retire at 60 are struggling to make ends meet because the pension age was raised too late for them to change their plans.

But she dismissed arguments that older women cannot get jobs or need to leave to make room in the workplace for the young.

“I cannot see why woman of 59 cannot just carry on on the job they are doing,” she said.

“My father worked until he was 70, my brother worked until he was 70 and my sister-in-law, a nurse, carried on working despite having arthritis.

“I am 71 and I am applying for one hell of a job. I don’t want to hear about people needing to retire at 60, they don’t.

She said a court case in June would decide upon the complaints of the main group of WASPI women who say they did not have enough warning of the changes to amend their retirement plans.

“That’s one lot of WASPI women, but there’s another lot out there who are whingers and whiners and full of self entitlement,” she said.

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