The charities Help the Aged and Age Concern have highlighted the ‘double standards’ in age discrimination legislation that would mean that one in eight MPs would be out of a job immediately if the same ‘ageist’ rules applied to them. The national default retirement age of 65 was scrapped for civil servants last October.

This meant that the 89 MPs who are over the age of 65 kept their jobs without any dispute. It was also noted that if a compulsory retirement age was applied universally, the majority of MPs would be out of work within 10 years.