Starmer was even more dangerous for disabled people than the Tories

Well, that’s it, Starmer has finally shuffled off. From behind his sad beige podium, the sad beige prime minister announced he would be resigning.

Speaking outside Downing Street, Starmer boasted about ending austerity and working to improve Britain for all. However, for disabled people, Starmer’s short reign was even more dangerous than the Tories.

When Labour got in, it was a small glimmer of hope; surely they couldn’t be as cruel as the Tories? But Starmer heard that and went ‘hold my beer’.

Starmer’s Labour far crueller than the Tories

From the outset, Starmer’s government has been focused on change for working people. The message became louder that if you can’t work, you’d be demonised, then forced into work or left to die. It was clear what Starmer’s Labour government stood for as early as September 2024.

For months, the government drip-fed the media and public the plans for disability benefits. At the same time, they let the media drum up hatred of disability benefits. They were vague as fuck about what the cuts would be. Meanwhile, they were also trying to appeal to the Tory vote. They also championed dangerous wca reforms.

The six months leading up to the announcement of the cuts were a lesson in media spin. Whilst the government using the media to turn the public against disabled people isn’t new, this time Labour already had the advantage that 14 years of the Tories’ propaganda had worked. So Labour could leak any old crap to the papers. It felt like every week the papers were demonising us in different ways.

Cruel cuts and media spin

They eventually announced the cuts in March 2025, though, of course, they leaked them to the press first to show just how much they cared about disabled people. Under the proposals, PIP would’ve been much harder to claim. Then DWP chief Liz Kendall announced that disabled people would have to score four points or more on any particular part of the daily living section.

As I explained at the time:

Meaning for example it would’ve been enough that you can’t wash your torso, now you will only qualify if you can’t wash your lower half. While being incontinent if it’s due to loss of bowel or bladder control would qualify, you won’t if you can get changed unaided after shitting yourself.

This is thankfully scrapped after a huge campaign by disabled activists and their organisations. However, thanks to Stephen Timms pulling out the biggest Hail Mary ever, plenty of other cruel cuts have been voted through by the Labour majority House of Commons.

These included moving the health element of Universal Credit over to PIP, despite it having nothing to do with unemployment. Additionally, they voted for the rate of Universal Credit to be halved for new claimants. The department knew these new claimants couldn’t work.

After MPs rebelled against the cruel PIP changes, minister for disabled people Stephen Timms pledged to run a review, co-produced by disabled people. But from the outset, they only pretended to work with DDPOs and then appointed just 12 whole disabled people to the steering group. And let’s not forget that the farce of a consultation, which made it sound like cutting PIP was already predetermined.

Demonisation instead of support

Alongside all the cuts, the DWP, under Starmer, has been hellbent on forcing disabled people into work, even if they know they can’t work. They’re pushing schemes such as WorkWell onto disabled people and putting jobcentre coaches into GP practices.

And whilst they’re pushing people into work, they’re doing nothing to support them. They’re actively cutting Access to Work (AtW). They are also stripping people of the support they’re already entitled to.

The main sticking point of the Timms review — published under Starmer’s watch — is that they still want to restrict the criteria. So to do that the DWP is working with the Department for Health. They want to prove neurodivergent and mental health conditions are overdiagnosed. As a result, this will make it easier to bring in the four-point rule via the back door.

They’ve got a special vendetta against young disabled people, with the Youth Guarantee promising to cut a claimants benefits off if they don’t accept work. Meanwhile, Pat McFadden also refused to rule out scrapping UC health element for under-22s.

Alongside the Timms review, the government is also running the Milburn review into kids who are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs). The review is another way for the government to claim that kids are pretending to be disabled to avoid work.

The media circus the DWP engineered around the interim report coming out made this clear. It was clear from this that the report didn’t yield the same outcome as Milburn and the DWP had already agreed on.

Starmer has blood on his hands

You might be thinking, ‘well, this is the DWP, Starmer doesn’t run that’, but rest assured, he has supported the cruel department.

When the plans to force kids into work came out, Starmer told Nick Robinson:

I have to say I’m particularly concerned about young people. In this regard, there are about a million young people who are on benefits, not all for mental health issues, but quite a number for mental health issues.

I think that is wrong and I don’t just say that because of the spending implications, I say it because if you are on benefits in your 20s, it is going to be extremely difficult to get off benefits for the rest of your life, it is not good and there’s a million young people in that position so there is a moral case for changing that.

Starmer might think he’s doing well by the country, but for disabled people his government sows distrust and continues ushering in harsh cuts, reinforcing the demonisation of disabled people across the nation.

Let’s hope Starmer’s successor will be better, but if it’s Burnham, I doubt it.

Featured image via the Canary