Holding the government line

By Katharine Quarmby

Mark Harper, the shadow disability minister, is tipped for bigger things, swoon some political correspondents, one of whom describes him as “fresh-faced and impressive”.

When I ask him whether he too will become party leader, like other Conservative disability spokesmen such as John Major and William Hague, he laughs and says that “I just want to concentrate on doing my job”.

Harper struggles to put clear blue water between Conservative disability policy and that of the government. It would, indeed, be particularly hard to slide an envelope between the two parties on welfare reform – both party leaders, for instance, have identified it as a priority and their approach iseerily similar.

The finger-wagging approach of the current government towards incapacity benefit (IB) claimants, many of whom are said to be able to work and some of whom have been derided as fraudulent, will continue if the Conservatives come to power. Mark Harper says, in words redolent of the secretary of state for work and pensions, James Purnell: “For those disabled people who are able to work they should be given the proper opportunity to do so…a lot of disabled people would like to work.” He echoes the hard-line government policy on so-called “IB fraud” – although he says “we haven’t chosen to use language that would frighten people unnecessarily” he continues: “Nothing makes tax-payers crosser than seeing able people not working,” although he refuses to estimate how many “fraudsters” there are.

When asked about the lack of joined-up thinking between social care funding (which is restricted for services such as ironing and shopping which could support disabled people to work) and the drive down on IB claimants, he is clearly sympathetic: “We are very keen on extending the use of individual budgets and giving power and control to the individual…but there are issues to be looked at in terms of funding.”

He also signals no change on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which the government has not yet ratified. His party has sympathy, he says, with the government’s proposed opt-outs on disabled people serving on the front-line and on the retention of special schools for some disabled children. Harper maintains, stoutly, that “there remain some children whose needs are best met in a specialist setting”.

Lastly, I ask him about the case of Kevin Davies, his disabled constituent who was tortured and kept in a shed until he died. Harper has worked tirelessly with Elizabeth James, Kevin’s mother, to secure longer sentences for the perpetrators. “As far as Kevin’s family is concerned, they are focussed…they want justice for him and for others.”