Lib Dem conference: Government ‘should consider criminalising disability discrimination’, says disabled MP

One of parliament’s new disabled MPs has suggested that the government should consider criminalising disability discrimination, because of the difficulty disabled people face in enforcing the Equality Act.

Liberal Democrat Steve Darling was speaking to Disability News Service (DNS) at his party’s annual conference in Brighton this week.

As a guide dog-user, with a wife who also has a guide dog, he has experienced repeated discrimination when trying to access services such as hotels, restaurants and taxis, including when trying to hire a taxi in Brighton on the way to the conference.

Although he said the Equality Act was “great in principle”, he said it relies on disabled people taking legal action themselves to enforce it – as he has himself – and they often do not have the resources to take a case forward.

He is planning to ask questions in parliament to try to probe how well the Equality Act is working.

Although he is not yet ready to call for criminalisation of discrimination, he says “it has got to be on the agenda”.

He wants the new government to “give some serious consideration as to how people can be supported in this area, and whether that includes criminalisation”.

He was speaking before Liberal Democrat party leader Ed Davey appointed him yesterday (Wednesday) as the party’s new work and pensions spokesperson.

Although he told DNS that championing his local community – Torbay – would be the “backbone” of his work and that he did not want to be “defined by my disability”, he also said he would be “quite happy to stand up and be counted on certain issues”, and has already spoken up publicly on discrimination by hotels against guests with guide dogs.

Darling, who was leader of Torbay council in Devon between 2019 and 2023, said his campaigning priorities in parliament were likely to be keeping sewage out of the sea – as a keen sea kayaker and swimmer, and MP for the “English Riviera” – the NHS and social care, and the cost-of-living crisis.

But, he said, one of the things that “gets me up in the morning is affordable housing, and the desperate need for social rented housing” – in Torbay, there is a significant shortage – while he told DNS he would hope to ask questions in parliament on accessible housing, and on the “serious issue” of safeguarding concerns around universal credit.

Another issue he said was “really important” and “close to my heart”, as someone who was adopted as a baby in Birmingham and 15 years ago tracked down his birth mother – who by coincidence had also moved to south Devon, just six miles away from where he lived – is children’s services, including fostering and adoption.

When leading Torbay council, he improved children’s services from “failing” to “good” in just two years.

And having a “bit of a messy background” means that care-experienced young people and issues around supporting families “are really important to me”, he said.

His experience of running Torbay council for four years and being a local councillor for 30 years means he is “immersed” in the area and knows “an awful lot of people in Torbay” and the “key players”, so he believes he will be able to “hit the ground running as the new MP”.

Darling is highly complimentary about the work of the “really helpful” House of Commons staff and their “very, very strong” customer service ethos, and he said the parliamentary authorities had “bent over backwards” to support him as a new disabled MP.

Despite that support, he said there were still access issues within parliament, such as the lack of clear signage.

He compares the experience of being a new MP to being “shot off into space” with only “half the controls around you, if that” while “there might be a wheel missing off the aircraft, and probably half a wing”.

He had hoped to be settled in and up to date with casework by the middle of August but now fears it could take him until Christmas, thanks to delays with appointing staff, finding a flat in London, and sorting out support workers, while also dealing with the daily “deluge of emails”.

Darling also said he believed figures obtained by DNS through a freedom of information request – which showed at least 43 out of a total of 650 MPs had discussed the possibility of having disability-related adjustments made for them – were “extremely helpful”.

He said: “It’s so important that elected representatives reflect our communities, but it’s also important that there are people, whether on local authorities or in parliament, who have a lived experience and can bring their experiences to bear on legislation or reports that are being discussed.”

Picture: Steve Darling with his guide dog, Jennie

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