Bath MP Coordinates Cross-Party Campaign for Disabled Workers During Covid Crisis

16 November 2020

Bath MP, Wera Hobhouse, has coordinated a cross-party letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – signed by 25 MPs from seven different parties – calling on Government to act now to redress the harm done to disabled workers during the Covid-19 crisis.

The letter was sent last week and calls on Government to “act urgently to put in place support measures, such as a Jobs Guarantee for newly unemployed disabled people”.

This follows the campaign launched three weeks ago by Bath’s MP which highlighted new statistics by charity Leonard Cheshire showing that “42% of employers were discouraged from hiring disabled job applicants due to concerns around supporting them properly through the pandemic. A fifth admitted they were less likely to hire a disabled person overall.”

Wera Hobhouse said:

“Last week marked 25 years since the landmark Disability Discrimination Act was passed in Parliament. And yet this new research from Leonard Cheshire suggests that we are moving backwards - we cannot simply accept the disproportionate impact that Covid-19 is having on disabled people in the workplace.

“I am pleased to have so much cross-party support for this campaign – MPs from many different parties and regions care about the future of disabled people in our workforce.

"Government has been cavalier about the impact the pandemic is having on disabled people, both in the workplace and beyond. It is shocking that disability was only mentioned once in the Government’s Plan for Jobs.

"The Government must now act to put in place measures to ensure that disabled people do not become permanently excluded from employment as a result of the pandemic. This must become a moment to tackle entrenched inequalities, not allow them to deepen still further.”