Their loss came about as a result of a change in Government policy that accelerated a pre-agreed timetable to increase the retirement age for women. Labour’s Ian McDonald said Labour would reimburse the WASPI women on a one-off payment.

US author Lionel Shriver said she “couldn’t disagree more” with Andy McDonald’s claim that the UK has a moral obligation to reinstate the WASPI women who have missed out on their pensions.

Their loss came about as a result of a change in Government policy that accelerated a pre-agreed timetable to increase the retirement age for women.

Labour’s Ian McDonald said Labour would reimburse the WASPI women on a one-off payment.

He said: “Those women paid into the system and they were cheated.

“The deal changed on them when they were looking forward to retirement.

“Their plans have been turned upside down.”

Several times did Ms Shriver talk over Mr McDonald during his speech.

She said: “I couldn’t disagree more.

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“Government policy changes all the time, it creates losers and winners, ideally that’s calculated – this was calculated.

“We have been retiring too early.

“The difference between men and women’s retirement ages never made the slightest bit of sense.

“I thought it was a little condescending towards women, that we can’t work as long – none of us can retire that early.

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“And, furthermore, when Government policy changes and when it’s meant to save the state money which is all of our money, it doesn’t make any sense to claw it back and compensate people who lost out – I’m sorry.

“This seems to be all based on the fact that there were expectations of retiring at a certain point.

“Well, what about the expectations of the cohort behind them? Wouldn’t they feel cheated? Don’t they need to be compensated?

“All of us have to make some sacrifices sometimes.”

Here, Mr McDonald said: “Yes, but it’s the very women who have suffered inequality of all of their lives and they’ve been planning for a retirement date, and the rug has been pulled out from underneath them as they approach their retirement.

“That has ruined people’s lives, it’s turned them upside down, and it’s an outrage that it ever happened and we have to put it right.”

Jeremy Corbyn has said the WASPI women who lost out n years of state pension payments when the retirement age was raised under the 2010 coalition Government were “misled”.

It has since become Labour policy to reinstate those women eligible, who were born between 6 April 1950 and 5 April 1955 £100 for each week of entitlement lost.

Women born between 6 April 1955 and 6 April 1960 would receive smaller amounts.

This would see Labour borrow £58bn to make compensation payments to the WASPI women, paying up to £31,300 to each of them.

Many have raised an eyebrow at the pledge, however, with Paul Johnson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) saying it has driven a “cart and horses” through Labour’s manifesto costing.

Labour argues that reimbursing the women would be a one-off “contingency” payment.

Those women affected claim they were not properly alerted to a rise in the pension age from 60 to 65.

The Clegg-Cameron coalition acerbated the process set out in the 1995 Pensions Act to equalise the retirement age over the course of 10 years from 2010 to 2020.

Citing a state pension as becoming unaffordable, the Clegg-Cameron coalition sped-up the previously arranged timetable, bringing the date that women’s retirement age would be increased to 65 to 2018.

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