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Labour is facing the real possibility of legal action over years of disability discrimination within the party, after reneging on plans to hold a national conference and set up a national committee of disabled members. The party’s national executive committee (NEC) […]
The failure of the membership of the House of Lords to reflect the lived experience of disabled people is “infecting” the process of making policy, according to a disabled peer. Lord [Kevin] Shinkwin, a Conservative peer, told fellow members of the […]
Ministers from three separate government departments have refused to say if they have any plans to protect disabled people who need electricity to run lifesaving medical equipment in their homes if there are power blackouts this winter. Ministers from the Department […]
The government appears to be set to announce Corby MP Tom Pursglove as the fourth minister for disabled people in just 14 months. Although the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has not yet announced the portfolios of its latest set […]
A user-led organisation has warned MPs and peers that the government’s planned mental health reforms do not go far enough and have failed to engage with disabled activists who have been pushing for a more rights-based approach. Mary Sadid, policy manager […]
A disabled activist has warned that proposed changes to the law that are supposed to prevent autistic people from being unfairly detained in hospital could lead to many of them ending up in prison instead. Alexis Quinn, who is autistic herself, […]
The Conservative party has undermined its new minister for disabled people just days after her appointment, by refusing to back her promise that disability benefits will be uprated next year by the full rate of inflation. Claire Coutinho (pictured, above right) […]
Former minister for disabled people Esther McVey has angered campaigners after an “ill-informed and offensive” demand that the government must never order another lockdown, despite the measure probably saving tens of thousands of disabled people’s lives during the pandemic. McVey, who […]
For someone who still claims to be “backing Boris” on her own website, it may not be surprising that the new minister for disabled people, Claire Coutinho, is not yet up to speed on important aspects of her new post. Coutinho’s […]
Labour’s leader has been accused by leading party activists of using “divisive rhetoric” and a “deliberate” failure to mention disabled people and others who are out of work in his main conference speech this week. Keir Starmer mentioned “working people” 25 […]