Disabled activists travelled from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to lobby their MPs over the Pathways to Work Green paper, the Disability News Service reports.

As many as 40 MPs held meetings with constituents, including former Conservative work and pensions secretary Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats; and former Green party leader Sian Berry.

But others did not turn up, including Ellie Reeves, chair of the Labour party and sister of chancellor Rachel Reeves. Housing minister Matthew Pennycook was another no-show.

According to Disability Rights UK, the lobby was organised by the Coalition Against Benefit Cuts, Disabled People Against Cuts, Disability Rights UK, Well Adapt, Inclusion London and SIC.  

With over 100 people attending it was one of the largest lobbies by the disabled community in over a decade.

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    · 3 hours ago
    Kemi Badenoch coming out saying the two child benefit cap must stay.

    Angela Rayner saying she has "No Desire" to be party leader.  Also denies U-turn on WFA.
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    · 4 hours ago
    Gaslit by a Narcissistic Government.

    When I listen to experts describe narcissistic behavior, I hear unsettling echoes in how this government is handling the disability benefit cuts.

    Inflating their own brilliance: Ministers proudly declare they are “fixing” a system they themselves are making more cruel and dysfunctional. They talk of reform and moral imperatives, painting themselves as saviors while ignoring the devastation their policies create.

    Denying harm: They insist the cuts are “fair” and “targeted" as the sick and disabled, organisations and charities, and the UN warn of worsening poverty, collapse, and death. Reports, pleas, and warnings are dismissed, replaced by polished press statements that pretend there’s no crisis at all.

    Shifting blame: Instead of acknowledging the brutal political and systemic choices they have made, they frame disabled people as lacking resilience or responsibility — suggesting that if only we tried harder, got a job, or thought differently, we’d be fine.

    Obsessing over image: They seem far more concerned with appearing tough, credible, and decisive — selling a vision of competence and fiscal responsibility — no matter how many lives they harm behind the scenes.

    Lacking empathy: Perhaps most chilling, they offer hollow platitudes and carefully rehearsed soundbites, but no meaningful recognition of the human cost. They avoid real connection, sidestepping the grief, terror, and exhaustion they are inflicting on so many lives.

    Gaslighting: They distort reality so consistently that many of us start to doubt our own experiences. We are told that cuts are “supportive,” that fewer assessments will mean “less stress,” and that people “deserve better pathways to work” —  as the policies make life unlivable. This manipulation of truth erodes confidence and leaves disability benefit recipients questioning themselves and at worst can lead to self-hatred or self harm.

    Many of us here know this feeling: it’s not just bad policy. It’s the experience of being gaslit by a narcissistic system — one that manipulates, punishes, and erases, all while smiling for the cameras.

    We need to please keep reminding each other: we are not imagining it. We are not “too negative” or “too sensitive” or “too demanding, lazy malinger's" etc.” We are living through a political period where severe cruelty is being carefully packaged within a narcissistic political process, and we have every right to name it, challenge it, and keep together working in resistance.

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    · 7 hours ago
    ITV coverage of a Cardiff protest yesterday. It’s the second news item.

    There’s another protest in Cardiff on 3rd June. Meet at Cardiff train station 12pm. Other details on DPAC website. 

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    · 8 hours ago
    BBC article about Reform’s next strategic move below. Nigel sees Labour drowning over winter fuel and child benefit, so he swims over and holds them down.  He’s cosying up to pensioner voters and parents but I’m  certain he’d gleefully throw disabled people under the bus (this means  disabled children who grow into disabled adults of course too). After all, pensioners and children are innocent; disabled people not so much. 

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg9v0ylv8vo
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      · 2 hours ago
      @Gingin @Gingin, ahem, cute you said, "I think we’re cute. Downright adorable in fact." 😝
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    · 14 hours ago
    Liz Kendall has said a future dependent on benefits alone is not good enough for people in Blackpool, Birkenhead or Blaenau Gwent.

    Tbh, it's not great for people in Amersham, Altringham and Ammanford; Chester, Cheltenham and Cardiff; Darlington, Dudley and Dolgellau; Ely, Evesham and Ebbw Vale (you get the idea)

    and you want to make it make it worse, minister?
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      · 3 hours ago
      @rtbcpart2
      A future dependent on her, Starmer, Reeves, Timms or Morgan McSweeney and blue labour is not good enough for the entire UK.  So, what do they intend to do about that??

      I know what the UK people will do about it.  They'll find out when  elections come around...

      They have been warned at the recent local elections and are on notice.  P45's incoming!!!
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    · 15 hours ago
    With keir starmer now going back on 2 child benefit to please the labour MPs I’m thinking now they will get the disability cuts through now so looks like starmer and co have now got enough mps on their side. I do prey I’m wrong 
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      · 4 hours ago
      @Diceman24
      Labour canvassers during the local elections reported that disability cuts were raised repeatedly on the doorstep. Labour MPs know that this issue is costing them votes, and therefore potentially their seats - and it's costing them votes before the cuts have even been voted on, let alone implemented. Labour MPs will have a hard time defending their seats at the next election if the cuts have passed and the consequences are becoming apparent to the public.

      I doubt the government will quash the rebellion by using the two child cap as a way to bribe its own MPs into letting them throw sick and disabled people under the bus. Remember, giving ground on the WFA was supposed to stem the rebellion over disabiity cuts. It hasn't worked, so now they're throwing the two child cap in there as well. It looks like another desperate move from a politically incompetent government that didn't expect this level of backlash and is increasingly rattled by it. 
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      · 14 hours ago
      @Diceman24 I understand that concern, as I have it, too.  But it also could embolden those against the cuts into thinking they can get the disability cuts changed too.  There's also the issue that he's pushed any announcement about the two child cap until the autumn - AND the winter fuel allowance announcement will be in the autumn.  But if the Mps against the cuts have some moral fibre (and we assume they do), they're not going to accept disabled people being plunged into poverty as some weird trade deal to get some kids out of poverty - especially with no details on the changes to either the benefit cap or the winter fuel changes.  What it looks like to me is a government that doesn't know what the hell it is doing or why it is doing it.  This seems, bizarrely, as chaotic as the Tories.  
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      · 14 hours ago
      @Diceman24 You are wrong.
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    · 16 hours ago
    I'm lost for words. Where Timms starts on about the New Deal in 1998. 1998!!!

    Then "admits that his constituent ended up in “a rather unsatisfactory zero hours job” that he decided to leave."

    "“The current system forces people to aspire to LCWRA status—as a kind of ambition,” he claimed."

    "Timms says he understands that disabled people are worried about the possibility that they could “really suffer”. It’s Labour welfare cuts that are making sure they do."

    Stop! Stop it now! Actually no, keep going. Show the world more of what you are.

    https://www.google.co.uk/url?q=https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/disability-minister-stephen-timms-backs-benefit-cuts-while-constituents-suffer/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiy1_jz9LyNAxVVT0EAHSfzCX4Q0PADegQIDBAT&usg=AOvVaw2giQ9eF9JKdBRaqxBn-7OY
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    · 16 hours ago
    The Independent and the i newspaper are basically reporting that there is a stand-off between Starmer/Reeves and the Labour MPs.  The MPs are threatedning to rebel (including possible front bench resignations) if the leaders don't stand down on the issue.  It's almost a case of who blinks first.  The problem at the moment is that we are getting so many mixed signals from media outlets over what might or might not happen next, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds that rather exhausting.  I really think that MPs and the media seem to forget that these are people's lives that they are playing with.  We shouldn't be a political football.   One day I'm hopeful, and the next day I'm in despair.  This is hard work!
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      · 3 hours ago
      @SLB
      I know how you feel, I feel the same way. But progress does seem to have been made. A couple of months ago the Tories said they would vote for the cuts and only about 27 Labour MPs had said they would vote against. Now it looks very possible that the Tories will vote against and the number of Labour MPs opposed appears to be well into three figures. 

      A recent quote I saw from an unnamed Labour source said that after the local elections "a lot of people have decided they're more afraid of the voters than the whips" - and while a lot of attention has been focused on the fact that Labour canvassers said the WFA kept coming up on the doorstep, they also said that disability cuts were raised frequently as well, so they know this is costing them votes. We just have to keep up the pressure on Labour MPs to make sure they vote the right way. The greater the pressure from the public, the greater the chance that they will stay more afraid of voters than the whips. That's how it should be.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      · 14 hours ago
      @SLB There are a lot more more eyes looking at Starmer and Reeves.
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      · 8 hours ago
      @robbie Encouraging media noise, thanks for posting these links 
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    · 17 hours ago
    If Susie Boniface was right about the winter fuel allowance Uturn being contrived so the government could appear compassionate and listening, maybe the extremities of the green paper proposals are intended to allow for the appearance of concessions. Rough us up before offering merciful compromises which we gratefully accept. Even if I believed they had the guile for that I still think they've underestimated the backlash.
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      · 13 hours ago
      @keepingitreal
      If that is their plan then they can F right off.

      The lot needs scrapping and any reform done for the real improvement of the system and people's lives.  It should be designed with disabled people and the organisations that truly represent us "at the heart of everything we do" as was repeatedly claimed and promised.

      Nothing about us without us.
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    · 17 hours ago
    It's coming out in the observer and the financial times that Starmer has asked Reeves and the treasury to look for the money to scrap the two child benefit cap and will then push on with welfare cuts as a "moral mission".  He believes that will win over most.

    So we're back to the "moral mission" now, not to save money, nor fight against reform as Kendall told everyone.

    Again, desperately clutching at all possible straws and doing just what I thought they would try on next.
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      · 3 hours ago
      @Mick
      Farage has made noises to that effect before, so it's not new. But yes, it could be a factor. You can see how right wing this government is in how it reacts to losing votes: when it loses votes to its left, the reaction is always the same: left wing voters don't have legitimate concerns, we don't need to bother listening to them or offer more left wing policies to win them back. But when they lose votes to their right it's the opposite: these voters concerns are legitimate, we have to win them back by moving as far to the right as it takes. This is bizarre, as they're losing far more votes to their left than their right, and the hard right voters they're chasing will never vote for them anyway, but that's the Labour right for you.

      Given their willingness to imitate Farage on immigration, it seems entirely possible that they could back down on the WFA and two child cap because they're scared of being outflanked by Reform. At this point they are being so intransigent on disability cuts that it seems the one thing that could make them drop it like a hot potato is Farage saying he would scrap the cuts. If that happened the disability cuts would probably be gone by lunchtime. Unfortunately Farage is just as determined to screw the sick and disabled as the Labour leadership so the chances of him opposing the cuts would seem to be non-existent. That said, he's such a cynical opportunist that if public opinion really takes against the cuts in a major way - and the polling shows the policy is already quite unpopular - then I wouldn't put it past him to reverse course on that as well and claim he'd always been opposed to disability cuts. 
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      · 13 hours ago
      @tintack Apparently Farage has said he would reinstate the WFA and get rid of the two child cap.  Could it be that's another reason Starmer is doing it, trying to match Farage pound for pound it would seem?
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      · 15 hours ago
      @Mick
      "Again, desperately clutching at all possible straws and doing just what I thought they would try on next."

      Yes, first they backed down on the WFA after saying they wouldn't, but insisted they'd still keep the two child cap and go ahead with the disability cuts.

      Now they're backing down on the WFA and the two child cap, but insisting they're going ahead with the disability cuts. I doubt that will work - if anything, saying to their own MPs "we'll give some ground on pensioners and kids, just let us screw the sick and disabled" may antagnoise them even further and exacerbate the rebellion rather than quash it. Disability cuts was apparently one of the issues raised frequently on the doorstep during the local elections, so any Labour MP who votes for it now knows they run a significant risk of losing their seat.
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      · 17 hours ago
      @Mick They'll pass it in the end, that's my two pence. They will NOT back down on this.
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    · 18 hours ago
    Just my opinion and hopefully a few others why don’t  this government just make pip payments slightly lower say £50 less a month each claim and no reforms that way us the disabled have no more worrying and anxiety which causes are health to deteriorate even further and the government saves them money and all the voting and court hearings which this brings. Why don’t the government just ask us. Than this government can give us all dignity has most of us with severe disabilities have a full time job battling our conditions we really don’t need anyone without medical expertise is our different conditions telling us we can work when our professional experts in our conditions say we can’t so government get a grip and stop playing with our lives. Thanks for taking your time to read my rant 
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      · 1 hours ago
      @Diceman24 Bless you for giving to good causes - stick with that, and save some cake for yourself! Labour want to have their cake and eat it. I can't help them get away with that, but each to their own, coping in their own way. You deserve good things to come to you.
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      · 11 hours ago
      @Diceman24
      Hi,

      No doubt you are absolutely correct.

      We all want this to be over, not at our expense though.  Give Them an inch and theyll take a mile, give them £50 and next time they mess up and there's no money left because of their actions, theyll be back for another £50 or more.  

      We've had enough taken from us and been put through enough.  It's time to end this for good.  We need to make sure they know that we don't accept this now from this so called labour government and, we won't accept any more of it  from any future governments, from whichever party.

      I hope you enjoy your weekend, take care 🙂
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      · 14 hours ago
      @keepingitreal Keeping it real hi just your note I think we all know it’s about saving money this reform I would rather lose a bit rather than all of my help money in a real world this wouldn’t happen to us (disabled) but this world is not real now. Like the old saying have a bit of cake before it’s all gone. This is just my opinion. And yes I do give two charities money each month from my bank account out of my disability allowance even though I don’t have a lot myself so yes I would accept it if this government done a vote for this. Maybe I’m just tired of all this bullshit from this government now thank you for reading this reply 
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      · 14 hours ago
      @SLB @SLB, hmm... "simply"? That would add such complexity to the system the opportunity for savings would be significantly eroded by administrative error. Dwp can't manage as it is. We have to hold firm. No cuts.
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      · 15 hours ago
      @Mick Hi mick you and I know the government won’t tax the wealthy and tech companies I hope they do. I just be glad when all this ifs and buts are over like us all but anyway thanks for your input in my thread take care 
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    · 19 hours ago
    The observer are reporting an exclusive that Starmer is scrapping the two child benefit cap and saying in doing so it now shows that it is a moral mission to carry on with the disability cuts
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      · 14 hours ago
      @Dave Dee What, he's saying easing the one makes it morally imperative to implement the other?Starmer is talking tripe. There's no justifiable conceptual leap between scrapping the two child benefit cap and the disability benefit cuts being a moral mission, whatever that is. 
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      · 15 hours ago
      @Dave Dee
      And if that doesn't succeed in quashing the rebellion, as I suspect it won't, what will he do then? Give up on the disability cuts as well? He should, but they seem determined to press ahead - and yet, if the Tories vote against the cuts, as now seems a distinct possibility, a Labour rebellion of 100+ MPs would likely be enough for the government to lose the vote. 

      In a way, the best possible outcome might be if they press ahead with this tin-eared intransigence but lose the vote. The damage done to Starmer, Reeves and Kendall would be huge and their authority in trying to force through any alternative package of cuts would be severely weakened.
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    · 20 hours ago
    I think the government wants the 800,000 job vacancies filled to take the country up to an 80 percent employment but not with immigration. Perhaps the current 1.5 million job seekers currently available are perhaps unwilling.
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    · 21 hours ago
    I'll add my predictions, there will be some sort of middle ground, an acknowledgement that out of all those people who will lose LCWRA/PIP they WON'T MAGICALLY BECOME EMPLOYABLE. So I presume this "halfway house" will be a version of LCW where you give them a heads up once in a while.

    We know disabled people who will lose these benefits may or will not find work, ever, so all of these "reforms" are a smokescreen for cuts. That's all. If they placed all disabled people out of work into the unemployment pool Britain would have record unemployment. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    · 22 hours ago
    The reforms will remove the support disabled people currently use to be able to work.

    It's so blindingly obvious that this isn't about getting disabled into work I am convinced it's intentional. 
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    · 1 days ago
    A good article that's just popped up on BBC news

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    · 1 days ago
    ‘One ambitious backbencher has backed a land tax and argued for £20bn of revenue-raising, including a revaluation of council tax in England, and higher levies on the savings and investments of high earners.
    Admittedly, that was in 2018.
    And that backbencher's name? Rachel Reeves.’

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      · 9 hours ago
      @Gingin She must have been an economist.
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      · 22 hours ago
      @Gingin You really couldn't make this up!
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    · 1 days ago
    Well said @SusieBoniface


    Thank You!!!
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      · 17 hours ago
      @Mick She is indeed one of my new heroes 
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      · 23 hours ago
      @Mick Uurgh - the wfa a strategic Uturn - that's terrifying, the ultimate cynicism. A miscalculation, though, I reckon, as it wont be enough.
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