Labour manifesto drops key disability rights pledges

Labour has published an election manifesto that has been shorn of key promises the party made on disability rights last autumn.

The manifesto also confirms the party’s continuing refusal to promise an end to ruinous care charges if it wins power.

And there is no explicit promise to co-produce disability-related policy with disabled people and their organisations, likely to be seen by many activists as a betrayal after years of promises that a Labour government would “work in co-production with disabled people in developing policy”.

There will also be alarm that the manifesto has avoided all mention of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Meanwhile, one of the biggest holes in the manifesto is its failure to promise any action on serious and continuing concerns about the safety of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the countless deaths linked to its actions and failings.

Despite mounting concerns in recent months over safeguarding, including more revelations from Disability News Service (DNS) this week (see separate story), there is not a single mention in the manifesto of how a Labour government would address these concerns.

Last year, DNS obtained a copy of the party’s National Policy Forum report, an internal party document that is supposed to form the basis of the manifesto.

In that report, the party promised to “ensure that respect and dignity are once more at the heart of our social security system” and that “every stage of the social security system will be supportive and accessible”.

It also promised to overhaul “the current unfair and punitive Tory system and end punitive Tory sanctions which strip away people’s dignity”.

None of these pledges appear in the manifesto, and there is only a fleeting mention of universal credit, the working-age benefit system that has been at the centre of many of the recent safeguarding concerns.

The manifesto promises only that a Labour government would be committed to “reviewing Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty” and gives disabled people “the confidence to start working without the fear of an immediate benefit reassessment if it does not work out”.

There are repeated references to employment, while the manifesto also stresses the importance of “rights and responsibilities” for claimants, and “consequences for those who do not fulfil their obligations”.

The closest the manifesto comes to a meaningful pledge on improving the disability benefits system is a statement that the work capability assessment “is not working and needs to be reformed or replaced, alongside a proper plan to support disabled people to work”.

Of 10 mentions of disabled people or disability in the Labour manifesto, six of them relate to employment or pay.

They include the introduction of a “full right to equal pay for disabled people” and disability pay gap reporting for large employers, improved access to reasonable adjustments for disabled employees, and a pledge to “tackle the Access to Work backlog”.

But there is no mention of repeated calls for an inquiry into the countless deaths linked to DWP’s actions over the last 15 years, a pledge that was made at the last general election in 2019 by senior Labour figures.

Only last week, DNS revealed how official documents link two former Conservative work and pensions ministers – including would-be party leader Penny Mordaunt – to a government cover-up of how a disabled man took his own life after being wrongly found fit for work.

Many disabled people are likely to be alarmed by the manifesto’s failure to even mention personal independence payment, when a DWP consultation on controversial Conservative reforms of the disability benefit is currently underway.

There will be no surprise among disabled campaigners that the manifesto includes no pledges on ending care charges, and that Labour has dodged any attempt at describing in detail how it will solve the social care funding crisis, despite acknowledging the need for “deep reform” to the care sector.

Instead, as expected, it promises a “fair pay agreement”, focusing on the needs of care workers rather than the disabled people who use care and support services.

It pledges to “build consensus for the longer term reform needed to create a sustainable National Care Service”, which will be “underpinned by national standards”, and it says a Labour government will “explore” how “to best support working age disabled adults”.

It adds: “Services will be locally delivered, with a principle of ‘home first’ that supports people to live independently for as long as possible.

“Our new standards will ensure high-quality care and ongoing sustainability, and ensure providers behave responsibly.”

Rather than committing to co-production of disability policy, the manifesto promises only that Labour is “committed to championing the rights of disabled people and to the principle of working with them, so that their views and voices will be at the heart of all we do”.

Disability News Service (DNS) has been told the party remains committed to working with disabled people through co-production to ensure they have an input in designing the policies which affect them most.

And despite the manifesto’s failure to mention the social model of disability – a key principle for the disabled people’s movement – DNS has been told the party remains committed to the social model.

But many disabled activists are still likely to be alarmed at the failure to mention co-production and the party’s commitment to the social model in the manifesto.

On the UN convention, the party – through shadow disability minister Vicky Foxcroft – had made repeated pledges that a Labour government would implement the treaty into UK law in the year leading up to last year’s annual party conference.

That pledge was weakened in the National Policy Forum (NPF) report to a promise to “honour our commitments to the United Nations’ Convention for the Rights of Disabled People and ensure its principles are reflected across government”.

But the manifesto does not even offer that weakened promise, although DNS has been assured that there has been no change to the party’s commitment to ensuring the convention’s principles are reflected across government.

There are other key commitments that were included in the NPF report but have been dropped for the manifesto.

The manifesto fails even to mention the accessible housing crisis.

The NPF report had said Labour recognised that disabled people “are less likely to own their own home and that disabled people often struggle to find suitable rented accommodation” and was committed “to the principle of co-design and conscious of the lack of minimum standards for new build properties to be either adaptable or wheelchair accessible”.

Labour promised in the NPF report to “work with Disabled People’s Organisations and groups led by disabled people to ensure new builds are accessible and adaptable, building on the ongoing review by government” and to “ensure new requirements are enforceable and empower local leaders to ensure new developments meet designated standards”.

None of that appears in the manifesto.

The manifesto does promise reform of hate crime law, taking on the Law Commission’s long-standing call for new standalone “aggravated offences” that cover disability hate crime (and similar crimes against LGBT+ people), to mirror those that currently only apply to racial and religious hostility.

This would mean that an offender could be charged with an offence – such as assault, harassment or criminal damage – that was aggravated by hostility towards a disabled person.

Disabled campaigners have been calling for more than a decade for such a change.

There is also an emphasis in the manifesto on the need to address the long waiting-lists for mental health support, with new Young Futures hubs to provide “open access mental health services for children and young people in every community”.

Labour promises to modernise mental health legislation that is “woefully out of date” and discriminates against black people, and ensure it provides “greater choice, autonomy, enhanced rights and support” and that “everyone is treated with dignity and respect throughout treatment”.

Although the manifesto says the treatment of autistic people and people with learning difficulties “is a disgrace”, it does not explain how a Labour government would address this.

And there is a pledge to improve “inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools”, while ensuring that special schools “cater to those with the most complex needs”.

Picture: Disabled activists protesting at the party’s UNCRPD stance outside last autumn’s Labour conference in Liverpool 

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