A PROMINENT disability campaigner has resigned from the Labour Party over the UK Government’s planned benefit cuts, saying she feels “quite disgusted by the way that they're treating the most vulnerable in our society”.
Carolynne Hunter, a project lead with the charity PAMIS, told BBC Radio Scotland on Monday that she had at one time thought to run as a Labour candidate to be an MSP – but now she could “not stand with them”.
Hunter’s daughter Freya has severe complex health problems and disabilities, is non-verbal and blind and requires full-time oxygen and at-home nursing care. In 2022, Hunter made headlines after Hollywood star Kate Winslet stepped in to help with her sky-rocketing energy bills – leading her to launch a campaign to help others in the same way the following year.
Hunter told the BBC that Labour were not looking after people like her daughter.
“I work and I would be happy enough to pay more tax if it means that they're not going to do this to people, because people need this,” she said.
“If you become ill and you're not able to work anymore, it's not a nice situation for you, but you still need to live and you still need to support yourself and you still need to be able to have a meaningful life.
“Taking away benefits that are actually not even enough in the first place is not a good thing to do. It's certainly not something that I would have foreseen the Labour Party doing and that's why I've left, because I can't stand with that.”
She added: “My core beliefs are supporting people who are vulnerable, and that's supposed to be the Labour Party, providing the welfare system, helping people when they need it most, and I just don't see that anymore with the Labour Party.”
Scottish Labour MSP Monica Lennon said on social media that she was “gutted that Carolynne has resigned from the Labour Party; a valued member, supporter, disability rights activist and social justice campaigner”.
“This should be a wake-up call to the party leadership, as it echoes how working class people feel all over the country,” the MSP added.
Elsewhere, the BBC called out five Scottish Labour MPs who support the plans to cut disability benefits for declining to answer questions on their position.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is expected to set out plans for reform on Tuesday in an effort to get more people back to work and cut the cost of a benefits bill described by ministers as “unsustainable”.
Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has urged “caution on how changes are made”, after an outcry from some Labour MPs over the reforms.
"They really need to think about the consequences of taking this short term action."
Reports suggest the scale of the backlash has prompted a rethink of rumoured plans to freeze the level of personal independence payment (Pip) rather than increase it in line with inflation, delivering a real-terms cut to 3.6 million claimants.
Ministers insist that reform is necessary given the number of people in England and Wales claiming either sickness or disability benefit has soared from 2.8 million to about 4.0 million since 2019.
The benefits bill has risen with this increase, reaching £48 billion in 2023-24, and is forecast to continue rising to £67 billion in 2029-30 – a level that would exceed the current schools budget and which the Government regards as unsustainable.
