Mass lobby of MPs marks ‘important’ moment in fight against Labour’s benefit cuts

Disabled people from across the UK converged on parliament yesterday to challenge their MPs in face-to-face meetings about the government’s proposed cuts to disability benefits.

Disabled activists travelled from Northern Ireland, from Wales – including a group of Disability Wales members – and from Scotland for the opportunity to express their anger and distress about the billions of pounds of cuts to support announced by the Labour government in March.

So many disabled people travelled to Westminster for the event (pictured) that the parliamentary authorities at one point had to introduce a “one in, one out” rule to ease overcrowding in 900-year-old Westminster Hall.

Notes taken by Disability News Service (DNS) during the event yesterday (Wednesday) suggest that as many as 40 MPs – and possibly more – may have held meetings with disabled constituents during the mass lobby over the cuts laid out in March in the Pathways to Work green paper.

Among those who made time for meetings with constituents were former Conservative work and pensions secretary Sir Iain Duncan Smith; Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats; and former Green party leader Sian Berry.

But other MPs dodged meetings with constituents.

Among those who sent messages to constituents during the lobby that they were not available to meet to discuss the cuts was Ellie Reeves, chair of the Labour party and sister of chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Last month, DNS reported that an ombudsman had linked the 2020 suicide of one of Ellie Reeves’ constituents with the flawed personal independence payment (PIP) system, with the report completed just as her sister announced £4.5 billion cuts to PIP spending.

The mass lobby was organised by the Coalition Against Benefit Cuts, Disabled People Against Cuts, Disability Rights UK and Well Adapt.

Nancy Kelley, from Brighton, reported a “very positive” and “supportive” meeting with her MP, Sian Berry.

She told DNS she had raised her “really profound concern” that the cuts were being made to “already inadequate benefits” and would push hundreds of thousands of disabled people into poverty, as well as damaging people’s health and wellbeing.

She had also highlighted the “moral unacceptability” of the cuts.

Kelley said she had urged Berry to “keep speaking out” about the cuts following questions she has already asked in parliament, including in prime minister’s questions.

She said: “Overall, it was a very positive conversation from an MP who I felt was quite engaged and very open to doing more.”

She added: “I think it matters when MPs see disabled people showing up to advocate for our rights to live in dignity; it matters for us to be so visible here.

“It will affect [MPs], whether they meet us, whether they have been requested a meeting and dodged it, or whether they are just walking past.”

But John Ley, a management committee member of METRO GAD in Greenwich, waited in vain for several hours to speak to his MP, housing minister Matthew Pennycook.

Pennycook had not responded to an email request to attend the lobby or to a “green card” request submitted on the day of the lobby.

Ley said: “I am not very impressed with Matthew at all.”

Dermot Devlin, co-founder of DPAC Northern Ireland, had flown to London from Northern Ireland on Tuesday to attend the event, and had to undergo medical tests to check that it was safe for him to fly, while the trip is likely to have a significant impact on his health in the weeks to come.

He said: “That shows how important it is that people back home are being represented here today.”

Although the Pathways to Work green paper and its associated billions of pounds of cuts do not apply to Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Executive’s finance minister, John O’Dowd, said earlier this month that it was “becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible” to mitigate against spending decisions made in Westminster.

Devlin said: “It will affect us too. We need to show our faces too. It will impact us.”

He said he believed the biggest influence of the mass lobby would be the “visual impact” of so many disabled people gathered in the House of Commons to lobby their MPs.

Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said her party hoped the government would revise its plans for the PIP cuts, just as the prime minister had announced hours earlier at prime minister’s questions that he would look again at Labour’s cuts to winter fuel payments.

But she said that, as the government’s plans stand, the Liberal Democrats were “very likely” to vote against the PIP cuts when legislation is presented to parliament, probably next month.

She told DNS: “It’s abundantly clear to me that there is already a huge amount of distress that is being caused to people with disabilities and their carers as well, and if the government is serious about getting people into work, or helping people in work stay in work, then cutting the support that helps them do that is not the way to do it.

“I have spoken to a number of people who are here today as part of this rally to lobby their MPs and what I can hear is that people are angry and people are scared.”

She said people rely on PIP “just to keep their head above water for day-to-day life, or keep them in work”.

One of her constituents told her he is desperate to stay in work, and that PIP allows him to do that by contributing to his travel costs.

She said: “It’s hard enough to get PIP as it is, and making it even harder is really tough.”

Neil Duncan-Jordan, who sponsored the event with fellow Labour MP Richard Burgon, told DNS he believed momentum was growing against the cuts among Labour MPs.

He said: “I think you’re getting more and more MPs feeling uncomfortable about what they are being asked to vote for, particularly because they are probably going to be asked to vote for it prior to actually having any real detail in front of them about the impact of that.

“Let’s get disabled people in front of MPs, let’s get the arguments out there, let’s see the MPs respond and see whether or not they are persuaded. I hope they will be.”

He added: “It’s important that disabled people meet their MPs directly and lay out in front of them what these cuts are going to mean on a day-to-day basis, how it’s going to affect them, how it’s going to affect their lives.

“Being an MP in Westminster, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the real world; it’s important that we start connecting again with ordinary people and that they tell us how our actions affect their daily lives, and that’s what I think this lobby is about.”

The mass lobby took place as the Commons work and pensions committee sent a letter to work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall calling on her to delay cuts to PIP and to the universal credit (UC) health element, and to co-produce new measures with disabled people.

It also called on her to carry out an “independent, comprehensive analysis of the impact of the proposed cuts in UC health support on employment, poverty and health outcomes”.

Tracey Lazard, chief executive of Inclusion London, said the mass lobby was “an important moment in what’s going to be a long struggle”.

She said: “It’s not the last time that we will be mobilising.

“What we are facing is so devastating. Effectively, we are looking at the dismantling of disability benefits as we know it.

“It makes no policy sense, it makes no political sense, and it definitely doesn’t make any ethical justice sense.”

And she said that comments by Liz Kendall, in a speech yesterday at the IPPR think tank, that the welfare state might not survive without the cuts to disability benefits, were “desperate” and “absurd”, particularly because social security spending was stable.

DPAC’s Andy Greene, whose MP Dame Emily Thornberry sent a message during the event to say she could not attend the lobby, said he believed Labour’s plan in government had been “just not to engage” with disabled people.

But he said it was “really encouraging” to see so many new faces among the disabled people who attended the event, which “bodes well for the struggle ahead”.

He said: “It’s really important that disabled people take every opportunity they have to get together.

“Secondly, it’s an embarrassment for the government when a lot of people turn up to say ‘look at this’ and they are too afraid to show their faces.

“These people are making these decisions but are then not willing to engage.”

DNS editor John Pring attended a meeting with his MP, Matt Rodda, as part of the lobby, but as Rodda is parliamentary private secretary to Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn, he was not able to give an interview about his views. But Rodda requested a written briefing from Pring, and promised to read it

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