Leading rebel Rachael Maskell chokes up sharing devastating impact of welfare cuts on disabled constituent

Rachael Maskell chokes up talking about impact of welfare cuts on her constituent Source: Reuters

Transcript

00:00My constituent sat in front of me with his gorgeous little girl, thankfully with headphones on and

00:06playing a kiddies game. He said he wouldn't get through this. He just about manages now,

00:13some days he gets up, others not, as his mental health is failing. He can't work, everything else

00:21has been taken from him and now this little bit of funding to help them get by, to give him just

00:29one ounce of dignity was more than he could bear. Then the words came, it would be better that I

00:37wasn't here. That was also his expectation he tried before. He'll be safe now, but the one who follows

00:48not. Another felt dehumanised as they would lose their independence to shower and dress and others

00:56could not balance the books, as Scope's disability price tag is at £1,095 every month of extra cost.

01:06Changes that would switch independence to dependence, dependence on social care, food banks,

01:12pleading for emergency funds or seeking charity. And those who came to see me with fluctuating

01:20conditions just do not know where their future lies. These Dickensian cuts belong to a different era

01:28and a different party. They are far from what this Labour Party is for, a party to protect the poor,

01:36as is my purpose, for I am my brother's keeper. These are my constituents, my neighbours, my community,

01:43my responsibility. And I cannot cross by on the other side. For one, let alone for the 150,000 who

01:55will be pushed further into poverty. And as so many of us fear, and as the evidence shows, since 600 people

02:05took their lives under the Tories' brutal reforms, the tragedy of this ideology could be worse.