Disabled people are expected to see a slight increase in representation in the new House of Representatives, with at least three new disabled members winning their seats in last week’s general election.
At least nine of the 650 MPs elected last week identify as disabled, up from as few as five in the previous parliament, and there is a good chance more MPs who identify as disabled will emerge in the coming months.
There are at least three new disabled MPs: Dr Marie Tidball, Labour’s candidate in Penistone and Stocksbridge, Steve Darling, a Liberal Democrat, in Torbay, and Jen Craft, Labour’s who defeated the Conservative majority in Thurrock.
Mr Tidball is a disability rights activist, legal researcher and experienced Labour MP, and holds a law degree, a masters and a PhD in criminology from Oxford University.
During the pandemic, in her role as coordinator of the Disability Law and Policy Project at Oxford University, she has repeatedly spoken out about the disproportionate number of disabled people dying from COVID-19.
Early in the pandemic, she compiled a report showing that government policy-making was breaching its obligations towards disabled people under both the Equality Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
She also accused the Conservative government of “failing to meet its domestic and international human rights obligations towards disabled people” during the pandemic.
She then compiled another report which found the Government’s National Disability Strategy was failing to address the “urgent challenges” posed by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
She won in Penistone and Stocksbridge last week, increasing her vote share by 10 percentage points.
She told Disability News Service (DNS) yesterday (Wednesday) that she was “over the moon” and “really happy” with her win after “two years of trying”.
She said she was “really encouraged” by the efforts House staff and officials made to make the induction process accessible to her.
Mr Tidball said he saw part of his role as a disabled MP being “visible”.
She said: “I truly feel that 14 million disabled people supported me.”
“When I was growing up there was David Blunkett and a few other Labour MPs and knowing there was someone with a disability like David in the House of Commons at that time made me realise maybe one day I could do it too.
“And I want people with disabilities of all ages to see this and think, ‘Maybe one day I can do that.'”
Darling also has a history as a local politician, having led Torbay Council for four years and working under former Liberal Democrat councillor Adrian Saunders for 18 years.
He overturned a Conservative majority of more than 17,000 votes in the 2019 election, winning by more than 5,000 votes.
Mr Darling is blind and has a guide dog, Jenny, who is set to become a familiar presence on the House of Commons floor.
Ms Craft won the Thurrock seat by more than 6,000 votes from Reform UK, coming in third place, beating former Conservative MP and ex-minister Jackie Doyle-Price, who was defending her 11,000-vote majority.
“I’m really passionate about special education issues and disability rights,” Craft told Centenary Action last year, which campaigns for a gender-equal Parliament by 2028.
She described herself as “a stay-at-home mom and carer for my disabled daughter”, adding that “it’s very easy to overlook the role of unpaid carer, but it has taught me so much more than any other job”.
She told Centenary Action: “I am a disabled person myself with long-term mental health issues and reform of the mental health system is long overdue.”
“I feel that things are going backwards for people with disabilities because of funding cuts and lack of access, and I will definitely be raising this issue and campaigning on it if elected.”
Another new MP, Labour’s Liam Conlon, said he was disabled after an accident as a teenager that left him unable to walk for four years and subsequently underwent major surgery and a hip replacement.
It is not yet clear whether he currently identifies as disabled, but he told the media outlet last year: “I used a wheelchair as a teenager so I know the humiliation of not being able to access public transport and how this limits employment opportunities for disabled people and is a major cause of social exclusion for disabled people.”
“That’s why, if elected, I will commit to establishing the first-ever cross-party group of MPs on transport access within my first 100 days in office – and I want to start making that change in south London.”
Mr Conlon won in Beckenham-Penge with more than 25,000 votes, almost 50% of the vote.
Three Labour candidates who previously self-identified as disabled were re-elected: Emma Rewell Buck, Marie Rimmer and Marcia de Cordova.
Vicky Foxcroft, who was Labour’s Shadow Minister for Disability before the election, identified herself as disabled just before the election and was re-elected to win her Lewisham North seat by more than 25,000 votes.
But despite her experience as a shadow minister and her popularity within the disability movement, her appointment as a Government Whip means she will not be able to speak out on disability issues in Parliament.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper has previously said she has long-term health issues, and in a pre-election interview, when asked by Channel 4 News journalist Reuben Reuter how many disabled candidates the party had, she told him she had a “hidden disability”.
Among the disabled MPs who lost their seats last week, Conservative Paul Maynard was heavily defeated in the new Blackpool North-Fleetwood constituency, and another leading disabled Conservative MP, former minister Robert Halfen, did not seek re-election.
Of the other disabled candidates who stood in the election, Emily Brothers, who would have become the first disabled transgender MP if elected, came in fourth in the hotly contested Isle of Wight East constituency, behind the Conservatives, Reform UK and the Greens, but still received more than 6,000 votes.
Kim Marshall came second for the SNP behind the Conservatives in the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency, receiving 10,757 votes.
George Galloway’s British Workers Party candidate Jodi McIntyre won the Birmingham Yardley constituency by around 700 votes over Labour’s Jess Phillips.
Liberal Democrat Catherine Macy came in fifth in Coln Valley with 4.3% of the vote, while her party candidate Richard Whelan came fifth in Basingstoke with 6.5% of the vote.
In Colchester, the Greens’ Sarah Nicola Roos came in fifth with 5.4 percent of the vote, while the party’s disability spokesperson, Mags Lewis, came in seventh for the party in Leicester east, but still won 4.6 percent of the vote in a constituency where two former Labour councillors stood against their former parties.
Independent candidate John Urquhart came in eighth in Cardiff West with 0.5% of the vote.
*DNS will publish a full article based on the interview with Marie Tidball next week.
Pictured: (left to right) Jen Craft, Marie Tidball, Steve Darling
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