Disabled election candidates: The Green Party’s Mags Lewis

The current political system is not designed for disabled people’s inclusion, according to general election candidate Mags Lewis, which is why she is determined to stand and “be seen to stand” at this general election as a visibly disabled woman.

Lewis (pictured) believes it was a “crime” that a fund introduced to support disabled election candidates, the Access to Elected Office Fund (AEOF), and its replacement, were both scrapped by successive Conservative governments, which have “paid lip service to our involvement”.

But she also points to the continuing failure to allow election candidates from the same party to job share, another measure which would “genuinely help with inclusion and accessibility”.

Having AEOF still open would have allowed her to pay for the extra disability-related costs she will face during the election campaign.

Funding for a support worker to knock on doors for her would be a “game changer” and for disabled people representing other smaller political parties, she said.

“As a disabled person who struggles to walk far, they could leaflet drop for me, or knock on doors and ask if that person would like to meet the candidate.

“This would spare me knocking on ten doors before I get to someone who wants to chat. I could then engage and tell voters about my candidacy.

“It is all about conserving energy for me, so that would be incredible.”

She said such a fund would support democracy and “encourage so many people to be able to stand if they didn’t feel they were going to be a drain on hard-pressed volunteers” or parties that were not well-funded.

Asked for an incident that politicised her as a disabled person, she remembers “almost wetting myself because the local public toilets were shut, and I realised just what a prisoner I was without decent public services”.

It is an issue she has campaigned on locally – as someone who needs to know which toilets are open, because of her MS – ever since she was told the toilets at her local library were closed because “the council had gone with the cheapest quote, but the parts were only available from Germany”.

She said: “It’s not fashionable, but dignity and access to loos is a political issue.”

As well as dedicating much of her time to the Green Party, Lewis describes herself as “a 52-year-old busy mother with MS, and a disabled activist”.

Her professional background was in NHS management, which “gave me an insight into the damage the private market and private profit are doing to our NHS” before she had to take ill-health retirement 10 years ago.

Lewis, who is standing for the party in Leicester East, described the current government’s record on disability as “abysmal”, characterised by “harsh benefit sanctions”, a “lack of curiosity or understanding of the disabled community and what we can actually offer”, and “hostility” towards disabled people.

She said there has been “a consistent and dedicated onslaught on our benefits, on systems and schemes to help us into work”, as well as a “hardening of public opinion, encouraged by government rhetoric”.

The Conservatives, she said, have encouraged a “culture of fear” with their benefit reforms, through sanctions, “stressful and demeaning” assessments – which are “run for profit” – and often-repeated suggestions “that disabled people are workshy”.

She also highlights lengthy NHS waiting-lists, particularly in mental health, cuts to bus services, and failings on accessible housing.

She contrasts that record with the many disability-friendly policies in the Green manifesto, but particularly the five per cent uplift to disability benefits; her party’s call for an end to “intrusive” disability benefit assessments; and the pledge to provide free transport for all 16-18-year-old students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The free transport policy shows “in a snapshot”, she said, “how changing legislative words for councils from ‘should’ to ‘must’ provide SEND transport can have a massive impact on children with SEND”.

The policy would help “hard-pressed” families “just a bit” and “show we value the education of 16-18 disabled kids”.

She hopes that her party’s “comprehensive plan” on disability, which includes free personal care for adults, as well as its “targeted support for carers and children”, plans to bring essential services back into public ownership, to “save our NHS” and to provide “proper accessible housing”, will put it ahead of other parties when appealing to disabled voters.

The climate crisis will impact “vulnerable” and disabled people “more than anyone”, she said, so “we have to do much more to help disabled people in this country and around the world”.

*This is part of a pre-election series of articles that will give some of the disabled people standing as candidates at the general election a chance to describe why they wanted to stand, how they became politicised, and the kind of barriers they have faced as disabled people. The aim is to raise the profile of some of the disabled people seeking elected office. DNS has analysed party manifesto commitments separately

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