Lords is ‘aeons ahead’ of Commons on access, disabled MP tells colleagues

The House of Lords is “aeons ahead” of the Commons when it comes to providing an accessible working environment for parliamentarians, a disabled MP has told an inquiry.

Labour’s Dr Marie Tidball was one of four disabled MPs, and a disabled former MP, who gave evidence to the Commons modernisation committee on Tuesday about the barriers they have faced in trying to do their job.

Tidball told the committee, which is carrying out an inquiry into the accessibility of the Commons and its procedures, that the authorities needed to create an inclusive working environment for the next generation of disabled MPs.

She said the barriers she faces – including being forced to wait to speak for hours in inaccessible seating – means she cannot contribute to debates in the main Commons chamber as much as she would like.

Much of her evidence was contributed by members of a new group of disabled Labour MPs, the first time such a disability caucus has been set up.

Tidball told the committee: “With the greatest respect, a lot of these things should have been done 15 years ago.

“And it’s brilliant that it’s now being caught up with, but I cannot emphasize enough that where these points are being made by us collectively today, they should have been done before.

“And so where people might be pushing back on some of these things, these are reasonable adjustments that make this house much more inclusive and ensure that we create a space where a generation of disabled people can come and follow us, and make sure that we better reflect the representation of disabled people across our population, which is around 22 per cent of the voting-age population.

“Having had conversations with members of the Lords, it’s clear to me that they are aeons ahead of where we are in the Commons.”

She said the House of Commons did not have an “anticipatory” culture, in which a service-provider should anticipate the kinds of reasonable adjustments that disabled people might need.

She said: “I definitely regularly feel that sense of shame that I’m having to talk about my disability very publicly to people and raise these points because the anticipatory duty is just not embedded in the culture here.”

Tidball said she has had to have six conversations with senior people about the inaccessibility of door handles in the House of Commons.

She said: “The cumulative impact on your energy levels if you have to keep using those door handles is exhausting.

“So there has to be a bit of trust for the knowledge and experience of disabled members when they say something’s a problem, it’s a problem, and not need to repeat it again, and again, and again.”

Another Labour MP, Marsha de Cordova, who has a severe sight impairment, told the committee that she had once fallen down some steps on the way to vote because of the poor lighting.

But twice recently she was told she could not take an alternative route to vote that avoided the steps.

She said: “I should be able to walk and vote whichever way I need to.

“It did leave a really bad taste because, frankly, we’re all members of parliament and we’ve all got to go and vote through whichever lobby we are allocated and told to vote in, and I should just be able to do that.

“And I shouldn’t have to explain why I can’t do that.”

She said it was the “societal barriers that create the challenges” and she encouraged the committee to examine its work through the social model of disability, as did Tidball.

De Cordova said there were “many, many challenges with the building and the way it is, particularly the difficulties with lighting”, as well as the lack of bright markings on doors and steps.

Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling, who uses a guide dog, said there was a need for a “culture change” within the House of Commons, although most of the staff provided “outstanding” assistance.

He said there had been “positive moves” on access but there were still “some real challenges”.

Darling also referenced the need for the committee to examine the access barriers through the social model of disability.

He is one of the only MPs who needs to memorise his speeches before delivering them in the main Commons chamber, whereas most of the others can read from notes.

But he still needs to ask a colleague to let him know when the time limit for his speeches is about to run out, while he also faces problems if he is told that the time he is given to speak has been cut in half.

He said: “Managing that chamber stuff is a challenge at times.

“I always practice, practice, practice, and then with a colleague outside, it’s when it changes from six minutes to three minutes, that then you think, ‘what do I throw over the side?’”

Other access issues raised during the evidence session included the poor signage around parliament, the strict dress code, and the lack of audio announcements and markings in the lifts.

The committee also heard that there was no accessible toilet in the main Commons lobby, a crucial area of the building for MPs.

Conservative MP Sarah Bool, who has type one diabetes, said the key issues she faced were around access to food, and managing her blood sugar levels, particularly when she is having to wait for hours to speak in a debate.

She said she had recently been sat in a debate waiting to speak for five hours and she could tell her blood sugar was “dipping and dipping”.

She also had to “bob” – standing up to show the speaker she wanted to speak – and that made her feel “quite ill” because it was burning energy, even though she was eating sweets.

The “worst case scenario” in that situation is that she could pass out in the chamber.

She said: “Once you’ve had sugar, your body recovers within 10 minutes of having sugar, but your brain takes about 45 minutes to get back properly if it’s been a low, so you just feel a little bit disorientated.”

She said it would be easier for many disabled MPs if they were given more information about when they were likely to speak in a debate.

Former Tory MP and minister Robert Halfon, who has a physical impairment, said he believed that many of the access problems within the Commons could be dealt with by changes of attitude.

He became an MP in 2010 but it was not until 2017 that he saw an advert for a four-wheel upright scooter, the RollerScoot, which allowed him to travel around the parliamentary estate much more easily, and which he said “literally changed my life” after the Commons authorities agreed to buy him one as a reasonable adjustment.

He said: “If I ever asked for something, like a chair, they would be very helpful, but it was always me asking for something, but I tried not to, because I wanted to be independent and not be asking for anything and everything.

“It seems to have changed a fair bit since then, but I think the experiences were very bad.

“I go back to my fundamental principle which is that it is not always about spending millions of pounds, this is about attitudes, and actually some of it is very simple to change, but in order to change you need to have the right attitude to change it in the first place.”

Picture: (From left to right) Sarah Bool, Steve Darling, Marsha de Cordova and Dr Marie Tidball

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