Disabled People in Poverty Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Work and Pensions
Richard Burgon
Main Page: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)Department Debates - View all Richard Burgon's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
(1 day, 13 hours ago)
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Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Lab)
It is extremely disappointing that the Government are pressing ahead with the cuts. They should have learned the lesson from the winter fuel payment debacle. Ahead of the coming votes, we will hear a lot of Government spin about how it is really about helping disabled people, but it is not. Labour colleagues should remember one key thing: the Government plan to slash £7 billion from support for disabled people. They cannot cut £7 billion from disabled people and then credibly claim to be helping them.
The devastating consequences for our communities are clear: 300,000 to 400,000 more disabled people will be pushed into poverty, 700,000 disabled families who are already in poverty will be pushed deeper into it, and at least 800,000 disabled people will lose PIP—the support they rely on to eat, wash, dress and use the toilet. It is immoral and I will vote against it.
In conclusion, I say to Labour colleagues: this change will become a millstone around the necks of not just the Labour Government but every MP who fails to vote against it. In the coming days, Ministers will call in MPs, and there will be the carrot and the stick. They will be urged not to vote against the cuts, and all sorts of promises will be made. But the minute the vote has taken place, MPs will be dropped and their phone calls will stop being answered. From the day of that vote up to and including the day of the next general election, they will be left to face their constituents alone—left to pick up the pieces in their constituency as thousands are thrown into hardship.
I urge MPs not to sit on their hands but to vote against this change. It is immoral. But the Government should save us from that choice by thinking again and dropping these cruel cuts.