The campaign to prevent the Labour government from making brutal cuts to PIP and Universal Credit is working; over 120 Labour MPs have signed an amendment which would kill the government plan to cut disability benefits. This huge rebellion is supported by senior Labour figures including Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham. The planned cuts are deeply unpopular not only with Labour MPs but also with the public. This is not surprising as the government’s plans will plunge hundreds of thousands of disabled people further into poverty, remove people’s independence and will lead to many more avoidable deaths. As DPAC has said, if these cuts are passed into law, they will be a death sentence for many disabled people.

If the government wants to save money, taking vital money from disabled people makes no sense at all. Forced further into poverty, disabled people will have to rely even more on the NHS and local authority care; services that are already underfunded and at breaking point. With the assisted dying bill set to become law, this is a double whammy for disabled people who will be left fearful for their lives. As Angela Rayner has made much of growing up in poverty on a council estate, it was sickening to hear her in Parliament today insisting that the vote on the cuts will go ahead next Tuesday and in Orwellian double-speak claiming that cutting benefits for disabled people is protecting the most vulnerable. The news that Starmer is ordering a squadron of American fighter jets at a cost of £700 million, while at the same time claiming that there is no money for disability benefits shows us what sort of leader he is; a leader that is intent on killing people in the UK by withdrawing vital benefits from disabled people and by extending austerity in order to fund his war-mongering ambitions that will kill thousands overseas. No wonder he is so deeply unpopular and despised by the public, and increasingly by his own party. We must keep up the pressure to ensure that Starmer drops the proposed cuts to disability benefits, or is defeated in Parliament. And then we must get rid of Starmer. Join the DPAC demo on Tuesday 1st July 1pm Old Palace Yard Westminster

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