• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Politics / DWP in dirty tricks row after abusive comments about disabled ex-MP

DWP in dirty tricks row after abusive comments about disabled ex-MP

By John Pring on 22nd May 2015 Category: Politics

Listen

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is mired in a dirty tricks row after an anonymous comment that mirrored tabloid scrounger rhetoric – and attacked a disabled former Labour MP – was sent from a computer just yards from its headquarters.

The comment was posted on the Disability News Service (DNS) website, in response to an interview with Dame Anne Begg, who lost her seat in this month’s general election.

In the interview, Dame Anne was heavily critical of the Conservative party and Tory work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith, and said she feared that disabled people would bear the brunt of a new wave of cuts to the social security budget, with the Conservative manifesto pledging another £12 billion a year in “savings”.

Throughout the last parliament, Dame Anne was chair of the Commons work and pensions select committee, whose reports held DWP and Duncan Smith to account over the coalition’s welfare reforms.

And last week she tweeted a link to a Guardian news report on Iain Duncan Smith being reappointed as work and pensions secretary, and therefore in charge of plans to cut £12 billion from the benefits bill, adding her own comment: “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

Two days after the interview with Dame Anne was posted on the DNS website, a comment appeared from a reader who called himself/herself “Joshie Bhoy”.

“Joshie” complained that the definition of a disabled person had now changed and that “even gangs of vagrant drunks and drug addicts get extra benefits as they are apparently ‘disabled’ which makes a mockery of the system”.

He/she said the incapacity benefits system was “now widely abused” and that the claimant count had “soared” under Labour to its present “unaffordable level”.

“Joshie” added: “Hopefully once the deficit is paid there will be more money available [for] those who are genuine and in need…

“She is just pissed off that she is now off the gravy train like all the others who lost their seats but suspect she will still shop at M&S as opposed to Lidl or Aldi.”

Because some of the comments closely mirrored Tory policy and the language used by right-wing commentators and politicians, DNS checked the location of the computer from which the message was sent.

This showed that it appeared to have been sent from Methodist Central Hall, which has a large public cafeteria and is next-door to DWP’s Westminster headquarters in Tothill Street.

The search also shows that the comment was made on a computer using wireless broadband, suggesting that it was sent from a laptop by someone visiting the building.

“Joshie Bhoy” has so far not responded to an email from DNS, and has posted no further comments on the website.

Dame Anne said: “I have had far worse abuse than that. I obviously don’t agree with the analysis.”

She declined to comment further.

The DWP press office was asked to comment, but is currently refusing to respond to questions from DNS.

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: Dame Anne Begg Department for Work and Pensions

Related

DWP: The case for the prosecution
2nd December 2019
New Commons chamber will include frontbench wheelchair spaces for first time
16th May 2019
Minister hid judges’ criticism of McVey from MPs, hours after shock appointment
11th January 2018

Primary Sidebar

Image shows a man wearing glasses sitting by an open laptop The text reads: Free Career Support for Disabled People Our services include: 1-2-1 Coaching Online Career Resources Find Support near you Search for Inclusive Jobs Career Events and Workshops Visit the Evenbreak Career Hive today to find out how we can help you

Access

Latest Stories

Grenfell: Call for action over government’s ‘deplorable’ decision on evacuation plans

‘Severely neglected’ man found dead, three months after DWP assessment

Government brands DNS ‘vexatious’ for trying to obtain info on 90 DWP deaths

Government’s ‘milestone’ disability jobs stats ‘are meaningless when it comes to equality’

Concern over offensive LGBT+ comments at access awards event

Universal credit boss defends years of misleading information

Discrimination could be a cause of increased risk of Covid death, says ONS

Access to Work in crisis as figures show ‘massive’ waiting-list

Queen’s speech: Activists’ message to Patel over new protest bill: ‘We fight on’

Queen’s speech: Six bills that may change disabled people’s lives, for better and for worse

Advice and Information

The Department for Work and Pensions: Deaths, cover-up, and a toxic 30-year legacy

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web