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Furious women stormed out of Parliament shouting “shame on you!” at a Tory minister who refused to help after their pension age was hiked.

Dozens of purple-clad protesters turned their backs on Guy Opperman before staging the noisy mass walkout of the Commons public gallery today.

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) activists are campaigning for 2.6million women born in the 1950s whose state pension age is rising to 66 by 2020.

In a heated debate, Tory backbenchers joined Labour calls for ministers to stop “burying their heads in the sand” and offer transitional help.

But Mr Opperman said the policy - set by two Acts in 1995 and 2011 - was “implemented 22 years ago and supported by all political parties”.

He refused to backtrack saying the maximum rise is 18 months and working-age people could not “pay an ever larger share”.

He added: “The key choice that a government faces when seeking to control state pension spend is whether to increase state pension age or pay lower pensions.”

Waspi campaign director Jane Cowley, who led the walkout, said the women were fed up after hearing Mr Opperman “rehashing the same issues”.

Up to 50 women in the public gallery were separated from MPs by bulletproof glass but could still be heard clearly on TV microphones in the chamber.

Ms Cowley said they left peacefully without being stopped by security.

The debate saw Labour’s Hugh Gaffney break out into the Beatles’ When I’m Sixty-Four as he cited the example of constituent Helen, who turns 64 in January.

He said she should not have to ask “will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?”

Tory MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “They have raised families alongside a lifetime of hard work and have made sacrifices to ensure future generations have better lives.”

(Image: Parliament Live)

Labour MP Carolyn Harris, chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group for Waspi women, warned many were “left in financial despair”.

“You really need to stop burying your heads in the sand and do the right thing by these women,” she told ministers.

“The reality is the women are desperate. I have women who are affected call my office, write to me, e-mail me every day letting me know they have had to sell their belongings and are relying on family, friends and food banks.”

Referring to ministers she said: “They’ve deceived these women. They stole their security and they shattered their dreams.”

Around 150 protesters travelled to London.

Cheryl Sloan, 64, from Coventry, wept as she told the Mirror how she and husband Frank, 67, had to shut their gardening firm before her son then died of pneumonia in April.

Cheryl said: “I’m living off my husband’s pension and I don’t see why I should have to do that when I paid my National Insurance all my life, for 40 years.

“There are lots of women here who cannot work. They’re having their benefits taken away despite illness. There’s nothing at all for them to fall back on.”

Maggie Hunter, 62, also from Coventry, sold her one-bed flat and said her three children are having to buy her food and pay her bills.

“I worked long 12-hour shifts in a care home and I took ill just before my 60th birthday,” she said.

“I lost my sister and when I went back to work I got the norovirus from a resident. I realised I was not fit to work.”

Maggie was claiming sickness benefit Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for anxiety, depression and migraines, but said it was stopped after she missed an assessment.

She said she is now waiting for a decision by officials after being told she may not get the benefit back for three months.

Broadcaster Joan Bakewell claimed the women’s fight will one day be a hit film on a par with Suffragette or Made in Dagenham.

The Labour peer told the House of Lords: “The film poster might well read: ‘They were old. They were women. They were condemned to be poor’. I appeal to the Minister to make sure that this does not happen.”