Labour MP: ‘These Dickensian cuts belong to a different era and a different party’

A Labour MP has said that the government’s welfare bill will impose “Dickensian cuts” on disabled people, and that it belongs to a “different era and a different party.”

Rachael Maskell, who tabled a “reasoned amendment” aimed at halting the progress of the government’s welfare reforms, said MPs must recognise “the ableism within our systems.”

She referenced a recent meeting with a constituent who said “he wouldn’t get through this. He just about manages now… as his mental health is failing, he can’t work.

“Everything else has been taken from him and now this little bit of funding… to give him just one ounce of dignity.”

“Then the words came: ‘It would be better if I wasn’t here’. That was also his expectation.”

She added: “These Dickensian cuts belong to a different era and a different party. They are far from what this Labour Party is for – a party to protect the poor, as is my purpose, for I am my brother’s keeper, these are my constituents, my neighbours, my community, my responsibility.”

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