“We are rebuilding a Britain that belongs to you”.
Those were the words tweeted by Keir Starmer hours before his first Labour conference speech as prime minister. Though after hearing the speech it’s clear he left a few words off the end:
“…unless you’re disabled”.
Starmer: coming after vulnerable people
Disabled people have long feared that a Labour government would treat them no better than a Tory one. And so far, Starmer’s team have done nothing to prove otherwise.
It may have only been 12 weeks since the election and just three weeks since the end of summer recess, but in that time their intentions have been made clear.
They could’ve shown us they cared about disabled people straight out of the bat – but instead, they allowed the PIP and Universal Credit consultations to carry on, and Liz Kendall has said she’ll be reviewing them. We’ve also had endless rhetoric from her and Reeves about “economic inactivity” – the most bullshit phrase for those not working as it’s not as if we stop paying bills when we’re on benefits.
In the last few weeks, we’ve also seen the number of articles on “workshy” Britain amped up, which is exactly what the government usually does before cutting our benefits.
It was also revealed by my brilliant colleague Hannah Sharland that Iain Duncan Smith’s grubby little think tank has already gotten itself into bed with Labour’s DWP.
Much of the first few weeks of Keir’s cruel rule has been focused on him freezing pensioners. Whilst the winter fuel payments cuts are bad enough, the fact that 71% of disabled pensioners will lose it is even worse. And it’s no coincidence that the DWP snuck that little nugget out late on a Friday evening.
On top of the winter fuel payments cut we’ve also seen a new task force formed to get Britain back to work that doesn’t include a single disabled person, because, for all their talk of wanting to get those of sickness benefits back into work, they’re not actually doing anything to really support us.
Cutting benefits once again
In the run-up to Starmer’s speech, we had reports that Rachel Reeves is looking to cut “sickness” benefits in order to help get people back into work.
Because starving to death is obviously an incentive.
Kendall also told a fringe event that the government were preparing for big benefits and Jobcentre reforms that would coincide with the budget.
As if we weren’t all anxious enough.
Just before his speech, several outlets reported that Starmer would outline plans to continue the crackdown on “benefit fraud” that the Tories started
A reminder disability benefit fraud is 0%.
This includes plans to bring in legislation that will give DWP benefit inspectors the power to snoop into benefit claimants’ bank accounts. This sounds awfully like Tory plans from 2023 that were scrapped in the last administration’s wash-up period.
This is also horrifically hypocritical, because Labour fought the Tories against this bill last year, with the now-minister for disabled people Stephen Timms saying at the time:
I think it’s surprising that the Conservative Party is bringing forward such a major expansion of state powers to pry into the affairs of private citizens.
Dark sentiment lurks under Starmer and the smarminess
So what did Starmer actually say in his speech? Well under the smarminess and cliche on top of cliche were a lot of big promises that are going to cost a lot. Then finally came the time for a measly mention of benefits:
If we want to maintain support for the welfare state, then we will legislate to stop benefit fraud. Do everything we can to tackle worklessness.
This should’ve set alarm bells ringing for many, but he threw it in amongst a promise-heavy paragraph next to something about pylons hoping people wouldn’t notice. If only you hadn’t given it to the press – making benefits a big focus hours before – eh Keir?
He went on to say:
We will get the welfare bill down because we will tackle long-term sickness and get people back to work. We will make every penny work for you because we will root out waste and go after tax avoiders. There will be no stone left unturned.
The implications of course of using this bullshit phrase “worklessness” alongside benefit fraud is that it’s people who are out of work.
By bringing up specifically those who can’t work because of long-term sickness, Starmer is hoping 2+2 will equal 5 for the British public and they’ll think those are the ones wasting their hard-earned taxes.
The use of words such as “no stone unturned” perpetuates the lies that many slip through the net because disability benefits are so easy to claim – despite many being hounded by awful assessments and of course the dehumanising work capability assessments.
And if they want to talk about tackling DWP waste they could start with the millions spent trying to deny disabled people the right to benefits a year or all the money wasted in their own error.
Failing to support disabled people
What’s a coincidence, I’m sure, is that whilst he mentioned tax avoiders in the welfare section, he didn’t mention how much is unpaid in tax a year by the wealthiest.
There were also lots of instances in his speech that he could’ve used to show his support for disabled people and just didn’t – even when he mentioned his brother, who he said “had difficulties learning”.
This would’ve been a great place to talk about SEND. His mother who needed care when she got sick would’ve been an opportunity to pledge to support those who need care or indeed carers.
The most noticeable thing we were missing, hurt the most for me.
When Starmer pledged that they would bring in a “Hillsborough Law” meaning all public officials have a duty of candour, he mentioned many cases where this would apply and victims and their families would get justice – Grenfell, the postmasters, and the infected blood scandal.
However, he didn’t mention the Covid inquiry, in which six in 10 deaths were disabled people.
He also didn’t mention disabled benefit deaths, of which an inquiry is due to start soon. But this comes as no surprise when disabled activists had to stage a sit-in just three weeks ago to get parliament to accept copies of John Pring’s The Department which exposes how the DWP is responsible for so many dead disabled people.
What he did do, however, was continuously mention working people and how much this was a government for them, making it clear that labour is not for those who can’t work. He focused heavily on the sacrifices working-class people would have to make – whilst subtly making those on benefits sound like a burden:
I have to warn you, working people do want more decisive government. They do want us to rebuild our public services. But their pockets are not deep — not at all. So we have to be a great reforming government.
Starmer: no ‘change’, just the same old shit
It’s really terrifying that the man accused of taking hundreds of thousands of pounds of freebies can so readily make it seem like the most vulnerable in society are scroungers.
At the end of the day, despite successive governments trying to paint us all as workshy layabouts who sponge off taxpayers, disabled benefits claimants are some of the poorest people in society who struggle to eat and pay their bills on the paltry amount of benefits they receive.
Labour are just Tories in a different colour in many ways, but the most obvious is the way they’re trying to paint disabled people and other minorities as the enemy so that the public won’t look at them.
They might’ve campaigned as the party of change, but it’s just the same old shit – now in red.
Featured image via the Canary
