Just 16 MPs attend debate on disability rights, days after hundreds vote for assisted suicide

Just a handful of MPs attended a debate to mark the international day of disabled people, four days after the House of Commons voted in favour of a bill that would legalise assisted suicide.

More than 160 MPs had told the speaker that they wanted to take part in Friday’s debate on the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill – with 330 MPs eventually voting in favour to 275 against – although there was only time for about 80 MPs to make a contribution.

But only about 16 MPs turned up to a debate four days later (pictured) to celebrate disabled people’s rights, and apparently not a single Conservative MP.

Tuesday’s adjournment debate (watch from 19.08) on the UN’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities was led by Labour’s Debbie Abrahams, who spoke of how disability hate crime had increased “almost sevenfold” since 2010, and the need to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

She also spoke of the “culture of fear” faced by disabled people who cannot work and rely on social security, and the deaths of countless claimants linked to reforms introduced by Conservative-led governments.

Abrahams became the first MP to mention The Department* in a Commons debate.

The book, written by Disability News Service editor John Pring, exposes how the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions led over three decades to the deaths of hundreds, and probably thousands, of disabled claimants.

She told MPs how she had got to know the families of three of the disabled people who had died and whose stories are told in the book – Errol Graham, Philippa Day and Jodey Whiting – who she said were “appallingly let down by the government of the day who should have been there for them”.

Abrahams, who chairs the Commons work and pensions committee, also highlighted the “decimation of services” relied on by disabled people, the “absolute nonsense” of train companies ordering new rolling stock that will not provide level access boarding, the discrimination faced by disabled children and young people in the education system, and the disability employment and disability pay gaps.

She said that disabled people across the world were “leading as innovators, creators, athletes, entrepreneurs, educators and advocates” and were “showing us that a more inclusive world is not only possible but essential.

“Yet despite progress, significant barriers remain, and the number of disabled people reaching their full potential is still far too low.

“Many disabled people – children and adults – still face discrimination, inaccessible environments, unequal access to education, employment and healthcare, and worse.”

Because it was an adjournment debate, only Abrahams and the minister for disabled people, Sir Stephen Timms, were able to deliver speeches, although other MPs could make brief interventions.

Among them were the disabled Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling, his party’s work and pensions spokesperson, who called on the government to ban floating bus stops and praised the campaigning work of National Federation of the Blind of the UK.

He also spoke of the discrimination faced by disabled people and his concern that they do not have “the full force of the law behind them when they are discriminated against” and instead must go through the civil court system.

Other MPs who spoke in interventions included the DUP’s Jim Shannon, Labour’s Warinder Juss, Jonathan Davies, Richard Baker and Samantha Niblett, and Liberal Democrat Layla Moran.

Sir Stephen spoke in his response of the government’s plans to support more disabled people into work through its Get Britain Working white paper.

He spoke of his meetings with disabled people and their organisations, including the DPO Forum England, and the government’s regional stakeholder network.

And he said the government had appointed lead ministers for disability in each government department to “represent the interests of disabled people and champion disability inclusion and accessibility in their department”.

He said: “I will chair regular meetings with them and encourage them to engage directly with disabled people and their representative organisations as they take forward their departmental priorities.”

Meanwhile, Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA) marked the international day of disabled people by announcing – due to a lack of funding from the Scottish government and local authorities – that it was preparing to make more than two-fifths of its staff redundant.

And it warned that if its core grant from the Scottish government’s Equality Inclusion and Human Rights Fund was not protected, another six staff would be at risk of losing their jobs.

Tressa Burke, GDA’s chief executive, who is herself facing redundancy, said that other disabled people’s organisations (DPOs), including Inclusion Scotland and Disability Equality Scotland, were “in the same position”, which she said was “shocking and shameful given our vital roles”.

She said there had been a “lack of action, diluted ambition and broken promises” in the Scottish government’s Disability Equality Plan, while social care charges “plunge disabled people into poverty and are a backdoor tax which only disabled people pay”.

She said: “I find myself frequently despairing about how we have come to this point where disabled people are once again at the back of the queue, the bottom of the pile and fighting to survive, be seen and heard.

“DPOs like us are a lifeline to disabled people. We need to be protected and investment is required so that we can keep providing lifelines and facilitate the voices and lived experience disabled people face.”

*The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, John Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP, is published by Pluto Press 

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