'Huge anger' of war widows after pension payout cruelly denied

A TORY peer has agreed to meet war widows furious at being excluded from a recognition payment.

- Jan Disley

Lord Harlech, the House of Lords' Ministry of Defence spokesman, will travel to Stratford-upon-Avon later this month to hear the complaints.

The Government has been branded "mean-spirited" for telling 72 women, who'd been waiting years for a deal, they no longer qualified due to last minute eligibility criteria.

The issue was triggered when around 300 widows, whose husbands died while serving their country, lost £7,500 a year because they remarried before April 2015. The Daily Express launched a crusade alongside the women for the pension to be reinstated. Last year the Government approved an £87,500 ex gratia payment instead.

A change in criteria means dozens who receive an attributable or occupational pension from their late husband have been excluded.