Lynne Featherstone

I thought the Today Program had good researchers – but listening this morning and hearing that the Government says there was no support for abolishing the mandatory retirement age during the Equality Bill is rubbish.

I, myself, raised it in Second Reading:

My last point about age discrimination and matters mandatory is that I cannot for the life of me understand why the Government have retained a mandatory retirement age. It seems completely wrong. I am surprised, as it is clearly discriminatory to decide on an arbitrary age as a cut-off. I heard what the Leader of the House said about the default retirement age being on a separate track, but the issue should be included in the Bill.

Moreover, at Committee Stage, I tabled an amendment to end this arbitrary discrimination against older people. Obviously individuals should have the right to choose when to stop working.

And, my LibDem colleague, Lord Anthony Lester, who is leading in the Lords on the Equality Bill (and whose life work has been equalities) has been pushing the Government very hard on this too.

I’m very glad that the Government have now seen sense but am fed up that when the LibDems lead the way -  the BBC fails to report accurately.

Anyway – hurrah – in the end the right thing has come about.