South Devon MP Caroline Voaden has voted in favour of a parliamentary motion to compensate women who were hit by changes to the pension age.

The SNP-led vote, which carried the support of 105 MPs, came after the government said it could not afford to pay out about £10.5 billion in compensation to women who were born in the 1950s.

There are 7,400 women in South Devon who may have been impacted by the changes (about 84,340 in Devon as a whole).

They have been referred to as WASPI following a compensation campaign which was started by the Women Against State Pension Inequality organisation in 2015.

Last year, the ombudsman recommended compensation of between £1000-£2950 for each individual as they were not properly informed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that the pension age for women had been raised from 60 to 65.

The government however rejected the recommendations shortly before Christmas.

The stance has proved so unpopular that no-one voted against the SNP’s motion, with 10 Labour Party MPs breaking ranks and voting in favour.

Caroline Voaden said she was “proud” to vote for the bill that would have righted a “gross injustice” but expressed “immense disappointment” that Conservative and most Labour MPs had failed to back the motion.

Pledging to “keep fighting” until South Devon’s WASPI women “got the compensation and justice they were owed”, she added: “This vote wasn’t about party politics or ideology. It was simply about...fixing this gross injustice that affected thousands of women in South Devon.

“Since this Labour government betrayed WASPI women in December, I’ve heard from countless constituents, and today, I was proud to put their words into action by voting for the WASPI women in South Devon to get compensation.”

However, although the bill has cleared the first hurdle, the vote is seen as symbolic as it is unlikely to receive government support and secure sufficient parliamentary time.