Andrew Dismore

Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation lays bare the attitude of the Conservative Party towards the least well off in our society- those with disabilities.

However, he did not vote against the huge cuts to Employment and Support Allowance, which went through the Commons in the week before the budget, nor did the Conservative MPs in Barnet who voted for these cuts, ( except Mrs Villiers who was absent for the vote but as a cabinet minister we can assume supports them). Also voting for the cuts was the Conservative candidate for London Mayor, Zac Goldsmith MP, who has been forced to resign  as a patron of a disability   support organisation in his constituency  as a result.

The next round of  draconian disability  cuts, this time to Personal Independence Payments,  were a cut too far for Mr Duncan Smith, but Barnet’s Conservatives have been strangely (or not so strangely) silent on the issue.

Do they back these Osborne cuts or not, as they have backed all the other cuts so far? They will get the chance to make their position clear, when Labour forces a vote in the Commons on it very soon- though I am not holding my breath!

Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden