JustBeingCP

The Conservative and Unionist Party lost the 2024 General Election overnight and I strongly believe that is because they failed to listen to us, the disabled community during the last 5 or so years.

Hereford and South Herefordshire remained in the hands of the Conservative and Unionist Party with their candidate, Jesse Norman receiving 14,871 votes which saw him hold on by around 1,000 votes.

I believe that this was because he listens to local residents within his constituency and puts there views and needs at the heart of everything that he has done and continues to do , if it wasn’t for Jesse and his constituency team I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to visit the Department for Transport twice in 2023 to meet with departmental officials and discuss issues that I am passionate about.

It was a completely different story in North Herefordshire, Where Sir Bill Wiggin lost his seat after receiving a total of 15,842 votes, Dr Ellie Chowns won the seat of North Herefordshire after picking up 21,736 votes.

Bill Wiggin has never listened to members of the disabled community and I have first hand experience of this, having reached out to him about attending an event for disabled children and young people in the county back in 2016, Mr Wiggin never responded to my invite which sent a clear signal that he did’nt care about the children and young people with disabilities in his constituency.

The Conservative and Unionist Party at national level haven’t listened to us in the last 5 or so years and that was clear when reading there campaign pledges around disability in their election manifesto.

The Conservative and Unionist Parties manifesto pledges on Disability

1. Wanted to reform Disability Benefits and tighten up what they call a ” sick note culture” because they believe that people are 3 times more likely to be accessed as not being fit to be in employment.
2. 60,000 new school places would have been created with 15 specialist schools for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) being built.
3. Mental Health would have been be given a parity of esteem with physical health and as such, they plan to increase the number of clinical placements for those that are experiencing severe mental illness by 140,000.
4. The tories also wanted to cut £12bn from the United Kingdom’s £69bn welfare bill, they also say that disability benefits alone are expected to rise from £39bn to £58bn in the year 2028/2029.
5. The 14bn of the disability benefit rise would have been because an increase to PIP (Personal Independence Payment)

I said earlier this week, when I was looking at there pledges that I welcomed both the news that 60,000 school places and 15 specialist schools would have been created for children and young people who identify as having special educational needs and disabilities.

However I was incredibly frustrated to see that they had failed to make any mention of there plans around putting additional funding into improving our pavement and public transport networks to help keep our community safe when we are trying to remain independent.

The Department for Transport (DFT) have been aware of my campaigning to get equal access to our rail network for those with mobility issues who use wheelchairs, mobility scooters and walking aids to get around since February last year, I have repeatedly asked to meet with the Minister for Rail and HS2 along with there departmental officials for months now, with no luck and I feel ignored.

There were also a number of high profile casualties who have lost their seats as a Conservative Members of Parliament and they are:

1. Grant Shapps – Former Defence Secretary and Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield
2. Gillian Keegan – Former Education Secretary and Member of Parliament for Chichester 
3. Alex Chalk – Former Justice Secretary and Member of Parliament for Cheltenham
4. Mark Harper – Former Transport Secretary and Member of Parliament for the Forest of Dean
5. Michelle Donelan – Former Member of Parliament for Chippenham and Secretary of State for Science and Innovation
6. Michael Gove – Stood down before the election, but was the Secretary of State for Levelling Up and the Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath
7. Lucy Frazer – Former Secretary of State for Digital, Media and Sport and the Member of Parliament for South East Cambridgeshire
8. Chris Heaton- Harris – Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Member of Parliament for Daventry 
9. Simon Hart – Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip) and Member of Parliament for Carmarthen West & South Pembrokeshire
10. Alistair Jack – Former Secretary of State for Scotland and Member of Parliament for Dumfries and Galloway
11. David TC Davies – Secretary of State for Wales and Member of Parliament for Monmouth
12. Victoria Prentis – Former Attorney General and Member of Parliament for Banbury
13. Johnny Mercer – Member of Parliament for Plymouth Moor View and Veterans Minister
14. Penny Mordaunt – Leader of the House of Common’s and Member of Parliament for Portsmouth North

If all of the above individuals had listened to our community especially Mark Harper who was in charge of Transport maybe the tory party would have won the 2024 General Election.

My message to the newly elected Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer is simple and is this, Your manifesto set out the following plans to support those with disabilities:

1. Want to improve the access to mental health care by introducing specialist professionals in every school around the country and recruit an additional 8,500 NHS staff. They also want special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) expertise in mainstream educational settings.
2. Labour also want to get disabled people into work by reforming the work capability assessment

I completely agree with reforming the work capability assessment as the tories also promised this as part of there campaign/election pledge, however I would also like you to look at what can be done on behalf our community to improve our public transport and pavement networks to keep us safe as we try to remain independent.

Today I wrote to the new Minister of State for Rail and HS2 and asked them and the new departmental officials to meet with me so that we can discuss my successful access for all campaign across the rail network in the Midlands.

I also want to discuss my call for the accessibility signage to be installed at unstaffed stations across the country with high volumes of passenger assistance requests.

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I would like to thank each and everyone of you, my readers and followers for taking the time out of your busy schedules twice in the space of a few hours to read my latest post, it doesn’t go unnoticed and is very much appreciated.

Cam