Cameron's disability challenge

A dismal showing by Labour in the recent local and European elections suggests that the next British government will be Conservative. With less than a year at most before the next general election, Ruth Patrick turns her critical gaze to the right and considers what a Conservative Government might deliver for disabled people

Those familiar with David Cameron’s slick, new-look, Conservatives will be unsurprised to discover that where disability policy is concerned much gloss and rhetoric attempts to conceal a rather worrying lack of substance. Indeed, in researching this article the biggest challenge was to actually find any Conservative disability policies or proposals. Much of what is available is several years out of date and in the end I had to rely primarily on just one source: an article by the Shadow Minister for Disabled People, Mark Harper.

On welfare reform, the Conservatives are firmly tied to the “work is all” mantra and will continue Labour’s obsession with getting disabled people out to work at all costs. Indeed, David Cameron, in a speech (admittedly from 2006) conflates work with disabled people behaving as responsible citizens, stating: “Disabled people need to take the responsibility of looking for work if they can, of taking their place in society.” One new Conservative twist though: Mark Harper suggests that more disabled people could be in work if the tide of economic migrants to Britain is firmly curtailed. Tying up disability issues with the politically sensitive issue of immigration seems both odd and wide off the mark.

Mark Harper also commits a future Conservative Government to simplifying disability benefits, critiquing the numerous different benefits available and the endless form filling this entails. Whilst this may be a correct analysis of the problem, it is not clear what is being proposed as an alternative. Other Conservative policies include getting more disabled people into government as MPs and into Whitehall as civil servants and speeding up the roll-out of individual budgets nationally.

With an absence of detail and hard policies, it is difficult to predict what a future Conservative Government might mean for disabled people. An early initiative of David Cameron’s, the disability challenge website, has had no new entries since August 2008. This is rather ominous given that the site was billed as the Conser­vatives’ tool for engaging and consulting with disabled people. When Mark Harper’s office were challenged on this, they reported being “too busy” with parliamentary business to update the website, suggesting that when different priorities emerge, listening to disabled people themselves may easily fall off the agenda. It is vital that disabled people demand that the Conservatives do listen to their needs and aspirations and properly consult on new policies.With a new Conservative Government visible on the horizon, the time to start that dialogue is now.

• See www.conservatives.com and www.thedisabilitychallenge.com for more details