Labour assembly members reject plan for disability equality champion for London, despite previous backing

Labour politicians have rejected plans put forward by a disabled people’s organisation that would have created a disability equality champion for London, despite backing the idea last year.

The plans were drawn up by the disabled people’s organisation (DPO) Inclusion London and Liberal Democrat London Assembly member Hina Bokhari, and received cross-party support from the assembly last September when they were voted through unanimously.

Inclusion London believes the mayor needs to appoint a disabled person to coordinate and develop policies that address the barriers faced by the 1.2 million disabled Londoners.

The plans would also have seen the development of a new London Disability Action Plan, covering policy areas such as energy, climate change, technology, health, housing, transport, the environment, police and emergency planning.

Inclusion London said last year that disabled Londoners were “tired of empty commitments” and urgently needed “real meaningful action”.

An online petition, launched in December by Inclusion London, which calls for a disability equality champion, has secured more than 1,400 signatures.

Bokhari told Tuesday’s assembly meeting – which was discussing mayor Sir Sadiq Khan’s proposed budget for 2025-26 – that appointing a disability equality champion would hold the “threads” of policy together.

She said a London disability action plan would “ensure actions are followed through and [hold] decision-makers to account and [create] a flagship model of policy co-creation”.

And she told fellow assembly members that Inclusion London had said the mayor’s existing forum of Deaf and disabled people’s organisations appeared to be “all talk and no action”, with “little scrutiny and no co-creation of policy”.

Bokhari said the new disability equality champion – who would be a disabled person – would be a “ground-breaking and transformative” position.

The assembly’s Conservative group also suggested appointing a disability champion, as part of its own proposed amendment to the budget, but it called for the position to be independent of the mayor as a non-executive director.

Both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative amendments were defeated.

Adam Gabsi, co-chair of Inclusion London, said after the vote: “Inclusion London have been working closely with the Liberal Democrats and other political groups on the assembly to get this amendment through.

“Though we are disappointed by the outcome, housing, transport, the built environment, are among many things in London that continually fail to meet disabled people’s varied needs, and this is mainly down to the lack of meaningful engagement with the disabled community.

“It is our hope that, despite this outcome, the mayor will take note of the amendment and ensure that disabled Londoners finally have a seat at the table, taking a leading role in policy formulation and implementation.”

A spokesperson for the mayor said he was “committed to creating a more equitable, accessible and inclusive city for all Londoners” and had “worked closely with organisations representing those with disabilities to ensure City Hall is placing their needs at the heart of its work”.

She said the mayor’s forum and his equality, diversity and inclusion advisory group, both “scrutinise policies and programmes, while representing, championing and advocating for disabled Londoners”.

She added: “The mayor will continue to do all he can to support disabled Londoners.”

Len Duvall, the London Assembly’s Labour group leader, said he welcomed ongoing discussions to strengthen the work of the forum, and he said that his group was “clear that the needs and voices of disabled Londoners must be at the heart of any decision making”.

He said: “Given ongoing conversations, it would not have been right to make changes to the budget to commit a specific amount to this issue.

“However, we will continue to work with disabled Londoners, and welcome the opportunity to work cross-party across the assembly to lobby the mayor to make sure City Hall is working to make our city accessible and open to everyone.”

Picture: Hina Bokhari (centre, in yellow scarf) at a previous assembly meeting. Picture by London Assembly

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