Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) have pledged to continue hosting election hustings, despite organisers this week having to cope with an anti-trans rights activist, a conspiracy theory-spouting Reform UK politician, and no-show party candidates.
The event in Bristol was organised by DPOs* who originally wanted disabled people to be able to question candidates standing in the Bristol Central seat at next week’s election.
But both Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire and the Green Party’s co-leader Carla Denyer turned down invitations to attend.
Even though the event then had to be extended to all of Bristol’s five general election constituencies, Labour still failed to provide a candidate from any of them.
The event organisers also had to tell anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen, who is standing in Bristol Central, that she could not join the panel of candidates, because her Party of Women has no MPs.
Keen, who has a vocal social media following, then booked a ticket to attend the event in Bristol.
She was initially prevented from entering the venue by security guards because of concerns that she would disrupt the event and distract from its aim of allowing disabled people to question candidates on disability rights issues.
There was also a police presence outside the venue, although it is not clear who asked them to attend.
The incident, and the refusal to allow her to speak, led to Keen posting a series of angry videos on her social media accounts, and her supporters swamping the comments section of the YouTube live-stream of the hustings with demands for her to be allowed to join the panel.
There was also anger and frustration that Robert Clarke, from the right-wing Reform UK, who is standing in Bristol Central and was on the panel, was able to deliver a stream of conspiracy theories and allegations relating to the United Nations, vaccine damage and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, without challenge.
He repeatedly accused the other parties of being “globalist”, a term often used by right-wing parties and conspiracy theorists.
He echoed the controversial comments of his party leader Nigel Farage, who said that the EU and NATO had “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by expanding eastwards.
Clarke told the audience that the main political parties were “interested in globalist wars like they are pushing in the Ukraine”, which he said had “very little to do with us” and was “a provocation of Russia”, and he accused the United Nations of doing “a lot of very bad stuff”.
He also repeatedly attacked the use of vaccines, claiming it was “extremely unwise to think that a so-called vaccination programme is going to help us or help disabled people” and referencing the discredited theory linking autism to the MMR vaccination.
After the event, Rick Burgess, from Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, one of the DPOs that supported the event, said it had been obvious that Keen had arrived intending to create content for her huge social media following and “advance her personal campaign”.
He said she was eventually allowed to enter the event on the understanding that she did not disrupt the event and “other than handing out leaflets, she wasn’t disruptive”.
Burgess said there had been frustration at the failure of key candidates to attend the hustings, and with the quality of those who did attend.
He said that “the political class didn’t deliver, so it left us dealing with that failure”.
He added: “If at national general elections [political parties] are not going to engage, we will not do [hustings] anymore, but I think we need to give it a try, learn and do better.”
Alex Johnston, from West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (WECIL), who chaired the event, said they had been forced to restrict the number of candidates they invited to make the event manageable, and so only invited candidates from parties with at least one MP.
He said they had originally prevented Keen from entering the event because of the risk that she would “disrupt and sidetrack the event, which we know they have form for, undermining the real purpose of the event, which was disabled people hearing direct from politicians”.
He added: “Then the police got involved and security got involved and as a result they did come in.
“There was some disruption to the event but not that it took away from the main purpose of the event.”
Jon Abrams, campaigns and justice coordinator for Inclusion London, which also supported the hustings, said there had been security and stewards present because people often attend such events who are “very angry and emotional”, but he stressed that it was not the DPO organisers who had called the police.
He said it was challenging organising such events when public figures such as Keen attend “to get media attention”.
He said Inclusion London had approached a number of DPOs to offer its support and in some cases funding to organise hustings events during the election campaign.
He said: “Clearly there is learning for us as well. People may come along to disrupt it for their own agenda.
“This is what is happening now. Do we not organise hustings? I imagine some people have that view.
“So how should disabled people in the run-up to elections who are already disadvantaged by barriers, how should they engage politically? What are the alternatives? Not to do anything?
“There may well be better ways of doing it. It would be great if people had constructive ideas for future elections.”
He said it was the first election campaign (along with the London mayoral election in May) at which politicians were not turning up to hustings without apparently valid excuses, which he said was “very disappointing”.
Among others who have failed to turn up to disability hustings events in their local areas are Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting – who instead sent written responses to be read out at last week’s event – and Labour candidates in the two Richmond constituencies, earlier this week (see separate story).
Some disabled campaigners criticised the DPOs for going ahead with the hustings when it was clear that the two leading candidates for Bristol Central, Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire and the Green Party’s co-leader Carla Denyer, were not going to attend.
All three campaigners asked to remain anonymous.
One said: “It is unclear what the event was designed to achieve.
“It was not informative – candidates were allowed to make up anything they felt the audience might like, without being called out for the lack of facts or the lack of semblance to their party manifesto (see separate story).
“It was not a means of holding anyone to account (which I would say is anyway an extremely naive objective for a hustings) because nobody that came has any chance of being elected.
“It was not a means of asserting disabled people’s voting power and there was not even any debate.”
She said such events play a “central role” in mainstreaming right-wing parties like Reform, while the Bristol event had used voluntary sector “time and money”, with each candidate given “equal time to put forward their ideas without interruption”.
The money could have been used instead for a “facilitated discussion about what we want from a future government and how we could get it”, she said, and DPOs could also then have publicised “the fact that the candidates couldn’t be bothered to come, so we have to organise without them”.
Another disabled campaigner said that “only allowing speakers to expound their views unquestioned was not a hustings, it was purely a platform” which “failed to either hold anyone to account or challenge the rubbish that was being said”.
A third disabled activist said: “The whole sorry incident hasn’t helped disabled people, caused division, and wasted £1000s that could have been used usefully.”
But Kamran Mallick, chief executive of Disability Rights UK (DR UK), said DR UK had wanted to support hustings organised by DPOs, including offering financial support, at “what is a really important moment”, and was also supporting next Tuesday’s national disability hustings in Manchester.
He said: “As with the Manchester national hustings, it was decided that parties represented in parliament should be invited to these sessions.
“We cannot and would never try to control what candidates say, but hustings are an excellent way for local disabled people to meet and engage with candidates and hear what they say on important key issues.
“This gives individuals the information and knowledge they need when it comes to casting their vote.
“It is important that DR UK, working with other organisations, supports accessible hustings where disabled people feel they can go and ask the questions most important to them.
“We do not condone harmful and hate speech about disabled people or members of our society.”
*Bristol Reclaiming Independent Living, West of England Centre for Inclusive Living, Disability Rights UK, Inclusion London and Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People
Picture: (From left to right) Panellists Robert Clarke (Reform UK), Rose Hulse (Conservatives), Jai Breitnauer (Greens), chair Alex Johnston and Liberal Democrat Tony Sutcliffe
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