Lynne Featherstone

Lying in bed watching the news – well blow me – Harriet has done a u-turn. Hurrah!

Harriet has suddenly been converted and announced that the mandatory retirement age is no longer to be compulsory – and I assume she will put it through in the Equality Bill – which is currently in the Lords.

Shame when I brought this forward at Second Reading of the Equality Bill in the Commons she was incapable of agreeing with me then.

As  I said from the front bench to Harriet during the Equality Bill Second Reading on May 11:

“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. “

As ever – Labour are having to play catch up to the LibDems!