This week during parliamentary questions, Shadow Minister for Disabled People, Vicky Foxcroft asked Conservative Claire Coutinho why they were no longer equal counterparts.
This is due to the fact that the role of Minister for Disabled People was demoted to Parliamentary Under-Secretary under the brief rule of Liz Truss.
Foxcroft said in the Commons: "What messages does this send to disabled people who already feel like an afterthought from this government?"
She called on the new government to reverse the decision immediately.
As expected, Countinho barely addressed the concerns raised, stating: "Let me leave the lady in no doubt about how important this issue is to this government."
However, she then went on to list the 1.3 million more disabled people in work, funding to SEND and end-of-life care - all of which are important if you’re looking for work, have a disabled child or are dying but not pressing issues for the rest of us disabled people facing a difficult winter.
"I don't want to think that they do that just for the sake of being cruel. I don't understand it, because arguably, it's a time when the role should be even more so promoted," Foxcroft told the Mirror.
"It's only when people kick off they go 'Oh, right. Yeah, we didn’t think about this.
"Think back to the Covid crisis press conferences and the fact that no BSL interpreters were invited, consistently.
"If they’d listened and thought about it they could’ve redesigned that press room to make sure there was space, but no," Foxcroft says.
The new prime minister, when he was giving his first speech, said he was going to bring compassion and that he would unite our country with his actions toward the commons.
"He'd restore economic stability in a fair way, protecting the most vulnerable," says Emma Lewell-Buck, the Member of Parliament for South Tyneside.
She is also one of just five disabled MPs.
"Yet he has not reinstated a Minister for disabled people leaving the role at the lower level of Under Secretary of State.
"So I think we will judge him by his actions, the 14 million plus disabled people in our country clearly aren’t that important to him," Lewell Buck finishes.
The reasoning Foxcroft was given in a previously answered online question was that Chloe Smith, who was the previous Minister for Disabled People, is now Secretary of State for the Department of Works and Pensions and will now have strategic oversight of disability policy and cross-government responsibility for disabled people.
"But in theory, the Secretary of State should do that anyway. Why would the Secretary of State ignore 20% of the population?" asks Foxcroft.
A big problem with the way disabled people are treated in government is that the minister for disabled people falls under Department for Works and Pensions, as opposed to equalities, like other identities are.
Meaning it’s often only seen through the lens of work and benefits.
This is a point Lewell-Buck agrees on: "It shouldn't be just seen through a DWP lens, because that projects onto how the rest of the country see disabled people. It should be cross-cutting across all government departments."
Speaking specifically about Coutinho’s response to Foxcroft’s question, Lewell-Buck said: "It's a lack of understanding of the role. Because if it's an afterthought for the person in charge, the Prime Minister, then it will be an afterthought for the people who are in those positions as well."
Since parliamentary questions on Wednesday, Coutinho has been appointed education minister, meaning once again disabled people are left with no dedicated minister, under-secretary or anything else for that matter.
With the next appointment, the role must be reinstated to Minister.
Disabled people make up 20% of the population, almost 14 million people, so the fact our representation in parliament was downgraded so flippantly shows how little the Tories think of us.
