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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/24/disability-campaigners-clash-with-police-inside-commons-over-benefit-cuts
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| Disability campaigners clash with police inside Commons over benefit cuts | Disability campaigners clash with police inside Commons over benefit cuts |
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| A group of disability campaigners have clashed with police inside the House of Commons after they tried to storm the chamber during prime minister’s questions to protest against benefit cuts. | A group of disability campaigners have clashed with police inside the House of Commons after they tried to storm the chamber during prime minister’s questions to protest against benefit cuts. |
| Around 30 protesters staged a noisy demonstration in the central lobby which could be heard during PMQs. | Around 30 protesters staged a noisy demonstration in the central lobby which could be heard during PMQs. |
| Scuffles broke out between the police and protesters – including around 10 in wheelchairs – when some of the group tried to storm the chamber. | |
| The campaigners were protesting against planned changes to the independent living fund. The fund, worth £320m a year, is currently controlled by the Department for Work and Pensions and intended to help around 20,000 people with severe disabilities live as independently as possible. Following a consultation, the government announced in March 2014 that it would scrap it at the end of this month. | |
| Andy Greene, a member of the Disabled People Against Cuts group which organised the protest, said police lifted him up in his wheelchair and dragged him away from the door to the chamber, damaging his chair in the process. | |
| “[The government’s actions are] not about getting disabled people back into work,” he said. “It’s about shrinking the state and the state’s responsibility for disabled people and privatising the remains.” | |
| pic.twitter.com/7kzdXPZhaz | pic.twitter.com/7kzdXPZhaz |
| The science minister, George Freeman, condemned the protesters, accusing them of letting down their cause. He wrote on Twitter that they let down their campaign with “violence and public disorder”. | |
| Around 40 officers turned up to police the protest. | |
| Disability rights campaigners dont help their cause +let down disability campaign w violence +public disorder. #PMQs pic.twitter.com/3ZmU5JrX2w | Disability rights campaigners dont help their cause +let down disability campaign w violence +public disorder. #PMQs pic.twitter.com/3ZmU5JrX2w |
| Speaking from parliament’s central lobby, where the protesters gathered, the Labour MP for Bolsover, Dennis Skinner, said: “It’s outrageous to say that in order to cut the deficit we should be bringing despair on the disabled and robbing children.” | |
| Skinner defended the decision by protesters to attempt to enter the Commons chamber: “That’s what the Bullingdon boys did, except they were using fire extinguishers in hotel foyers. This was more practical. It was about real life.” | |
| Protester Mary Johnson, whose disabled daughter uses the ILF, said: “None of us is going away. We will keep coming back until it’s sorted out because it’s disgusting what this government is doing to disabled people. They’ve said they’re going to protect disabled people and they aren’t.” | |
| Mandi Peers, a wheelchair user who works in the music industry, argued that it was more expensive to put somebody in an institution than it was to give them the budget to manage their own care. “Friends of mine who rely on the ILF are going to have to give up their jobs and get their pets rehoused,” she said. | |
| The ILF system was set up in 1988 to help severely disabled people live independently, topping up care packages from local authority social services. |