I’ve had a lot of people asking me how I feel today after MPs voted for disability welfare cuts yesterday. As someone who is not just a benefits claimant but who has been campaigning myself to death for the last two months, yesterday was horrendous. Watching the debate and vote didn’t feel real. How could people who were so passionately against this welfare bill just days ago have changed their minds so quickly? I just didn’t and still don’t understand.
In the last day, I’ve cycled through devastation, anger, numbness and even delirium at one point. But, the emotion I’ve settled on now is none of these; it’s just straight up confusion.
Let’s be clear, this isn’t because I naively thought we had this in the bag, no it’s because I genuinely do not have a fucking clue what is going on. And I’m not alone in this, the group chats I’m in with campaigners, journalists, and even those who work in politics have been shrouded in just sheer bafflement all day.
Due to this bill being so hastily amended and stripped back right up until an hour and a half before the vote, nobody actually knows what the welfare bill is. I cannot fathom that 33_ MPs voted for a bill when they have no idea what it’s actually about.
So what actually is in the welfare bill?
From what I can decipher, the welfare bill will no longer affect those claiming PIP – it’s now completely dropped PIP from the title and it’s just the Universal Credit Bill. Except after the Timms review, it might affect new PIP claimants again if MPs vote to include it.
They’ll raise Universal Credit for those in work and slash it for those who can’t work, which we already knew. Low capability for work-related activity is also still being moved to PIP (I think).
So basically, PIP claimants (the majority of whom are already in work) wont be affected by “back to work” bullshit while those most vulnerable who can’t work and shouldn’t have to look for work were sold down the river by those who should be fighting for them in parliament.
And those who spent yesterday waxing lyrical about how much they cared about all disabled people gladly sold their most vulnerable disabled constituents down the river to save face.
Saving face over protecting the vulnerable
Because that’s all this was at the end of the day. These never-ending U-turns and concessions were to try and claw back power for Starmer and Kendall and to not make it look like the Labour Party are, after a year in power, prepared to kill disabled people at a rate the Tories could only aspire to.
But again, all of this could change when it comes down to the third reading next week, because the promises that got the welfare bill pushed through yesterday weren’t in the bill that actually was voted on. There will hopefully be much scrutiny from MPs who were convinced to vote for the bill in literally the eleventh hour, but honestly fuck knows at this point.
I’m sorry this sounds so downtrodden but I genuinely have spent most of the day just trying to get my head round what the fuck is happening and I’m still not sure I fully understand – and I suspect that’s exactly what the government want.
Why we need to keep fighting
This is all alongside the fact that I’m also preparing to launch a book tomorrow. It feels utterly bizarre to be celebrating having written a book about disability rights history whilst the government are fucking around with disabled peoples lives to the point where we’ve all burnt ourselves out fighting for our rights – but I think that’s exactly why we need it.
I wanted to end with my favourite paragraph from my book:
The erasure of both disabled people and their champions throughout history has been so pervasive that entire generations of young people have no idea who came before them, or that the rights disabled people have today weren’t generously ‘bestowed’ on us by nondisabled society or the British state—we claimed the rights that were ours, and we fought for them, tooth and nail.
The fact that people, disabled and non-disabled, don’t know this is unacceptable, especially now, when our rights are more at risk than ever.
The government wants disabled people exhausted and sick of fighting so that they can push through a welfare bill that would push the poorest of us into even worse poverty. They want us feeling isolated and like there’s nothing to fight for, because they’re terrified of how powerful we can be when we call come together – so lets fucking show them exactly what we can do.
Ramping Up Rights: An Unfinished History of British Disability Activism is out 3 July (C Hurst & Co, £14.99).
Rachel will also be taking the book on tour, with the online live launch being held on the Canary’s Instagram on Friday 4 July, 6-7:30. No sign up required, just come along and ask Rachel any questions you have.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.