Even on the lowest rung of the political ladder, I’ve been there.

You’re at a busy event and a well-meaning soul, passionate about their cause, approaches you, placard in hand, wanting to know if you can support them and take a quick pic. And as long as it’s not to crusade for the Third Reich or to starve children then – as is the British way – you are polite and perhaps have a photo taken, promising to delve into the issue later.

So when I saw the multitude of pictures of what seems like all of the entire Labour front bench posing with WASPI placards, I did feel a slither of sympathy. In fact more than 80 Labour MPs who posed with the placards have now been silent since the Government’s announcement to refuse them compensation.

The WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign has been fighting for women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed about their state pension age being raised from 60 to 65 to equalise it with men.

But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has ruled that none of them will be receiving compensation – as, put simply, at £10.5bn for a blanket compensation scheme it’d cost the taxpayer too much.

The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves were pictured backing the WASPIs from 2018-2020. As I said earlier, Rayner could have just left it there.

She could have promised the WASPIs she’d look into it, that she’d try and understand what had gone on and sensibly take a position on it in case she was ever handed the responsibility of dealing with the issue.But lo and behold she couldn’t just keep her big gob shut and – now somewhat predictably – used the WASPIs’ anger as a stick to beat the then Conservative government with.

In a video from 2019 that has resurfaced online, Rayner appeared on the BBC saying Labour “will compensate” WASPI women as it’s “their money”. She said: “The government failed the women who were born in the 1950s.

“They stole their pensions, that contract, that agreement that they had, and then accelerated it so that those women didn’t have a chance to prepare for that.

“We said we’ll right that injustice and within the five years of a Labour government we will compensate them for the money that they lost.

“This is their money that they had stolen from them. It was completely unacceptable.

“Any government should act responsibly to these women.”

And since her boss Sir Keir Starmer’s big announcement? We’ve heard not so much as a snifter. Nada. Nothing.

My former Conservative MP was at the time very sympathetic to the cause but he knew we couldn’t afford to give a payout to all those in the age relevant age bracket – and was honest about it. Did it cost him votes? Well, he lost his seat by just 214 so his honesty could indeed have sealed his fate.

But at least he had integrity and not demonstrated the awful hypocrisy – which is the one thing voters really hate – that’s now becoming synonymous with Rayner and her crew. It’s not the first time that Rayner has chucked rocks in her desperate grapple for power without a thought on what she’d do if ever given it.

We also saw her lack of principles in full effect throughout the freebie scandal – sashaying into Downing Street in donor-funded designer togs, despite having gleefully called out Boris for his so-called gold plated wallpaper.

All people want is to see a bit of humility and honesty from politicians, but sadly for Rayner a total lack of them means that we’re going to see her false virtue bite her on the bum time and time again.

I really do hope it’s those politicians who have the guts to be frank and truthful that are the ones who are rewarded come next time around – because if not then politics will stay in the gutter and people will trust politicians even less than they do now.