Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
Responding to reports in The Times this morning, Green MP Siân Berry who holds the party’s Work and Pensions brief said:
“So the solution to young people without education or jobs is to continue demonising young and Disabled people instead of addressing the structural inequalities stacked against them?
“What is the point of a deep review like this if the conclusion is that the Government goes on blaming young people for needing help?
“The Prime Minister must remember that social security is a human right whatever your age.”
Nigel Farage drinks a pint at The Ship pub in Clacton on 13 August 2026. Ben Montgomery/Getty Images
With its discriminatory plans for PIP and social housing, Farage’s party has made clear that we’re not part of its gang
Reform’s political statements are short, blunt and make crystal clear who it does and doesn’t want in its gang. So far, refugees and other foreign nationals have borne the brunt of the party’s hostility and vitriol, but in recent weeks, it has also turned the spotlight of rejection on Disabled people.
Last month, Nigel Farage’s party announced that, should it take power at the next election, it will abolish Personal Independence Payment (PIP). The benefit is paid to Disabled people who experience barriers to living independently, and there are around four million recipients across England and Wales, 83% of whom are of working age.
Having a disability adds an average of £1,095 a month to household bills, according to research by Scope, a disability charity. PIP recognises and contributes to these extra costs (although, even at its highest rate of £778.40 a month, it often doesn’t cover them in full). It helps pay for charging an electric wheelchair or turning the heating up in a cost-of-living crisis; for pre-prepared food and specific diets; for the specialised transport needed to hold down a job; for the essential personal care that enables a person to get out of bed in the morning, and any other support that allows Disabled people to live independently in their communities.
The vast majority of Disabled people don’t receive PIP; accessing the payment is widely recognised as an arduous, barrier-heavy process that often deters or denies the very people it is supposed to support. Rather than overhauling the system to reduce the unwieldy bureaucracy or fix the high error rates – two-thirds of PIP rejections are overturned at tribunal, with no new evidence presented in the vast majority of cases – Reform wants to scrap it altogether.
The party plans to provide payments only to an ill-defined group of Disabled people whom it deems most in need. The rest of us will be forced to go cap in hand to local authorities for support, much as Disabled people in the 19th century were required to depend on the charity of the parish. Rather than ‘saving taxpayer money’, as the party has claimed, such proposals will offload costs onto an already crumbling NHS and underfunded social care sector, while driving Disabled people towards institutionalised care.
The party’s attack on Disabled people hasn’t stopped there. Also last month, it said it would prioritise British-born working people under 35 for social housing, with additional preference given to married couples with children. The discriminatory divisiveness of this policy proposal is breathtaking. To base the allocation of scarce social housing on where a person was born, their employment status, age, or relationship status, rather than on their need, is unfair and unjust.
Entire sections of our society would effectively be excluded from social housing under the policy, including: older people, Disabled people of all ages who are unable to work due to impairments or health conditions, single people, and everyone born outside the UK, including those who have fled violence in their home countries.
These deeply divisive policy statements fail to provide the underlying analysis that led to the plans, or any vision for system change. The stats show that a large number of people on the social housing waiting list are Disabled people, so what is Reform’s rationale for turning their back on this real and sizeable need?
Disabled people already face significant societal disadvantages. Around half of those in poverty are disabled or have a Disabled person in the household. We experience physical and digital barriers to education and employment. Navigating the street can be challenging, and public transport is often a no-go zone. We are over-represented amongst homeless people, struggle to pay high rents in the private sector, often live in homes that are not accessible and are placed in inaccessible and inappropriate temporary accommodation for far too long.
So, how do the above Reform policy announcements address this kind of deep-rooted, long-standing discrimination? They don’t. The party has no plans to make society more inclusive and equal, no plans to make the social security system fairer and no plans to allocate social housing based on need. We’re just not part of its gang.
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A protest at the Houses of Parliament in July 2025. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Image
Long delays in processing personal independence payment (Pip) claims have become one of the most damaging and least defensible failures in the UK’s welfare system. Pip is designed to support disabled people with the additional costs of daily living and mobility, yet for many claimants it has instead become a source of prolonged uncertainty, financial hardship and distress. Waiting months – and in some cases more than a year – for a decision can push people into debt, rent arrears and poverty, especially as Pip unlocks other support such as carer’s allowance.
Parliament has been sounding the alarm over the scale of the problem – but it appears the Department for Work and Pensions has its fingers in its ears. The stock response is that a new “health transformation programme” will lead to efficiency gains made by replacing paper Pip applications with an online claims system. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown,the chair of the public accounts committee, last week pointed out that MPs had been told “three years ago that improvements would have manifested by now; we are now told that they are a further three years off”.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy (left) and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during the Labour Party Conference at the ACC Liverpool, September 28, 2025
LABOUR is failing to uphold basic rights, the new head of the official equalities watchdog has warned.
Protesters, migrant workers and disabled people have been particularly targeted by the government, Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chairwoman Mary-Ann Stephenson has told ministers.
Dr Stephenson, who took up her role at the start of the month, urged the government to “ensure rights are protected across the nation.”
Her warning comes as PM Sir Keir Starmer is looking to persuade other European leaders to dilute the European Convention on Human Rights to make it easier to block refugees.
Dr Stephenson highlighted areas where “key human rights” are not being guaranteed.
She said: “The government has made commitments to protect everyone’s fundamental human rights.
“While there has been progress in some areas, it is failing to uphold basic rights in others — particularly by permitting heavy-handed responses to peaceful protests, failing to ensure disabled people can access healthcare on a level playing field with others, and allowing labour exploitation to go unchecked for certain workers.
“This failure to uphold key human rights is concerning for each and every one of us.
“That’s why we’ve written to ministers to urge them to review our new report and ensure rights are protected across the nation.”
The warning echoes complaints made by her predecessor, Kishwer Falkner, about “heavy-handed policing” of Gaza solidarity demonstrations which she said risked a “chilling effect” on protest rights.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Instead of addressing child poverty, homelessness, poor working conditions or any of the real issues impacting this country, Labour has chosen to deflect the blame and pour billions into arms, says Jeremy Corbyn. Britain is tired of having no political choice – and we’re here to fix that
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Over the past year, the government has continued a programme of austerity and privatisation. It has refused to lift the two-child benefit cap, the single biggest driver of child poverty. It has tried to take away the winter fuel allowance. It has increased the bus fare cap. And it has tried to take away £5bn from disabled people, curating a two-tiered benefit system that deprives thousands of people of a dignified life.
There is one area where the government has been very generous, though: arms spending. Government military spending is now at £31.7bn, which is a 6 per cent increase in real terms from last year. Imagine how much better ordinary people’s lives would be if we spent that money on schools, hospitals and green energy instead.
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People have had enough of a political regime that serves the interests of billionaires and corporations. They have had enough of a government that inflicts suffering at home and enables genocide abroad. They have had enough of broken promises from political parties that fail to deliver real change.
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Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy (left) and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during the Labour Party Conference at the ACC Liverpool, September 28, 2025
