Davey stirs up hostility towards disabled claimants, as Lib Dem spokesperson links similar attacks to far right

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has whipped up hostility towards disabled people by suggesting there is widespread fraud among claimants of personal independence payment (PIP), despite his own work and pensions spokesperson linking similar unfounded attacks to the far right.

In an interview with Times Radio at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Bournemouth, Sir Ed suggested the reduction in face-to-face assessments had led to “quite a lot of fraud” among the recent increase in PIP claimants since the start of the pandemic.

But the latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimate that just 0.4 per cent of PIP spending in 2024-25 was due to fraud, while the previous year’s estimate had been zero per cent.

Despite these facts, Sir Ed said: “There’s a real suggestion in those numbers, by the way the Conservatives managed the system, that there’s quite a lot of fraud there and surely everyone can agree we should go after the fraud to make sure that people who need the benefits that people who are really disabled can still get them.”

But Sir Ed’s comments came on the same morning (Sunday) that his own work and pensions spokesperson, disabled MP Steve Darling, told Disability News Service that far-right activists were launching similar attacks on disabled claimants using dubious figures on economic inactivity.

Darling said: “My real fear is that in our now Trumpian world, [the far right] don’t need the facts to add up to make outlandish claims.”

He said it was disturbing how “the far right will just make up narratives for their own purposes, and demonising others is part of their playbook and sadly people with disabilities and quite often people with hidden disabilities are in their crosshairs.

“It’s part of that push back against the far right [and what] we need to be doing is unpicking that, because otherwise that half-truth will be built on by the far right to demonise people with disabilities.”

Sir Ed also mirrored claims by right-wing politicians when he claimed in the Times Radio interview that it was vital to reduce spending on social security, despite widely-available official figures showing that expenditure is stable as a proportion of GDP*.

His comments on PIP were particularly embarrassing because he focused in his main conference speech on Tuesday on attacking Reform UK and its leader, Nigel Farage, warning repeatedly of the “Trump-inspired country Farage wants us to become”.

Asked about his leader’s comments, Darling declined to say if he agreed with them, but yesterday (Wednesday) he issued a statement through his party’s press office.

He said: “Liberal Democrats are proud champions for the most vulnerable in society.

“We led the charge against the government’s ill-thought welfare cuts bill and played an instrumental role in defeating plans to slash PIP.

“We will always stand up for disabled people and their carers.

“Ed rightly pointed out that the Conservative party’s move to telephone assessments has damagingly undermined public trust in the welfare system.

“A fair system of in-person assessments, where possible, is vital to make sure this crucial support is there for people who need it.

“More broadly, Liberal Democrats have long argued the best way to reduce welfare spending is to tackle the root causes of the rising welfare bill – by seriously investing in health and care, and making it easier for disabled people to access the world of work.”

Sir Ed’s speech to the conference (pictured) included just two mentions of disabled people, but neither in relation to his own party’s policies.

Instead, he mentioned family carers like himself 10 times in Tuesday’s speech, without once mentioning the adult social care charging crisis, which sees tens of thousands of disabled people falling into debt every year because of those charges (see separate story).

*Gross domestic product, the size of the country’s economy in a particular year

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