• 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 / Human Rights / ELECTION 2015: UKIP’s silence on UN disability convention
Star Anderton head and shoulders

ELECTION 2015: UKIP’s silence on UN disability convention

By John Pring on 24th April 2015 Category: Human Rights

Listen

UKIP is refusing to say whether it is in favour of key sections of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Last week, its election manifesto made it clear that UKIP supported article 19 of the convention which outlines the “equal right of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others”.

The manifesto adds: “We wholly endorse the right of the disabled to access in-home, residential and community support services and we support their inclusion in our communities.”

But despite repeated attempts this week by Disability News Service to secure a response from the party, particularly from its disability spokeswoman, Star Etheridge, UKIP has failed to say whether it supports other articles in the convention.

These include sections focusing on the right to: accessibility; life; personal mobility; freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; access to justice; freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse; respect for privacy; and liberty of movement and nationality.

In an interview with Disability News Service two years ago, Etheridge distanced herself from some of the party’s previous discriminatory policies, and suggested there would be a “radical change” in its approach at the 2015 general election.

Etheridge, who is disabled herself, has also refused to provide further details on UKIP’s plans to scrap the Care Quality Commission – which inspects and regulates the NHS and social care – and replace its inspectors with locally-elected health and social care officials on new county health boards.

DNS contacted Etheridge by email on Monday (23 April), and later followed up by phone and through a Facebook message, as well as with a call to the UKIP press office, but she and the party failed to respond.

Etheridge, who is standing for election in Wolverhampton North East, did have time on Thursday to post a series of pictures about a bunch of flowers she had been sent by an anonymous admirer, and to tell her Facebook followers about her plans to visit the hairdresser “to get my hair and nails done” before an evening hustings event.

The previous day, her many Facebook posts included comments on aliens, the need for capital punishment for paedophiles, a family expedition to buy a new suit, and her son’s taste in music.

Share this post:

TwitterFacebookWhatsAppReddit

Tags: election 2015 UKIP UNCRPD

Related

Human Rights Act review ‘must not lead to weakening of disabled people’s rights’
10th December 2020
Round-up: Unheard voices, a new manifesto for Wales… and Unlimited goes digital
10th December 2020
Meeting sees relaunch of ‘bold and brilliant’ independent living strategy
26th November 2020

Primary Sidebar

Access

Latest Stories

DPOs ‘shocked and dismayed’ over survey, as government faces threat of legal action

Philippa Day: Secret DWP report reveals errors ‘that led to disabled mum’s death’

Philippa Day: Capita made changes to PIP assessments after young mum’s death

Philippa Day: DWP civil servant denies PIP ‘culture of scepticism’

Silence from police chiefs over face mask exemptions, despite gap in guidance

Call for urgent immigration action over care worker shortage

Documentary exposes hostility… and a need for widespread change in attitudes

Statistics regulator refuses to push DWP over impact of universal credit

Philippa Day: Young mother ‘took her own life after being told to attend PIP assessment’

Philippa Day: DWP phone agent ignored sobbing claimant who later ‘took her own life’

Advice and Information

DWP: The case for the prosecution

Readspeaker

Footer

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

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

Copyright © 2021 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web