Disabled Labour MP uses memorial lecture to push government to implement UN disability convention

A disabled Labour MP has vowed to push her government to implement the UN disability convention into UK law, as she delivered a lecture set up to remember a much-admired activist.

Marsha de Cordova, the MP for Battersea, was delivering the first annual Ruth Bashall Memorial Lecture.

She also promised to continue to support the campaign for a public inquiry into the years of deaths caused by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The lecture was hosted by Stay Safe East, a disabled people’s organisation which provides advocacy and support to Deaf and disabled victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence, hate crime and harassment, and other crime in London. 

Ruth Bashall, who died last November, was co-founder of Stay Safe East, as well as a long-standing director, chief executive and then policy manager of the organisation, and the idea of an annual lecture in her name was suggested by her friend and fellow disabled activist Kirsten Hearn.

Hearn said she had “wanted a space in which to honour Ruth’s life which reflected her contribution and would mark her legacy by encouraging Deaf and disabled people to present ideas about oppression, discrimination, harassment and hate and what to do about it nationally”.

In her lecture, de Cordova spoke about the ongoing barriers disabled people face across independent living, transport, housing, employment and education, with many living in poverty, while she said disabled women were more than three times as likely to experience domestic abuse than non-disabled women.

She also said that disabled people were too often “left feeling as though they’re not going to get the right support or the right outcome when they report hate crime to the police”. 

De Cordova said that many disabled people were now “struggling after 14 years of austerity, as well as the impact of the pandemic”.

And she highlighted how a series of Conservative-led governments had created a “hostile environment for disabled people” through cuts to social security and local authority funding.

She said: “They were cruel and they were callous and it didn’t matter how many times they were warned about the damage their policies would cause, they did not listen.”  

She said the harm they had caused and their “grave and systematic violations” of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “could have been prevented had they chosen to see us as equals and see us as humans”.

She said she would “continue to fight” for the UN convention to be implemented into UK law.

De Cordova said she also wanted to keep pressing her government to examine policy areas in which it could incorporate parts of the convention into UK law, such as education, independent living and social security and support for disabled people. 

Until that happens, she said, “we are not going to achieve equality and justice for us all”.

In response to a question from Disability News Service, she said she still believed there needed to be a public inquiry into the deaths associated with DWP because “somebody need to be held to account”.

She said: “My view hasn’t changed on that and it won’t ever change on that because we all know the impact that the Department for Work and Pensions’ policies have had on disabled people.

“The last 14 years have probably been the worst.

“I’ve heard of so many lives that have been lost as a result of hostile policies that have had a devastating impact.

“No government should ever have been allowed to get away with some of the violations [of the UN disability convention] that the Conservatives – with the support of the Lib Dems for five years – did to our community.” 

De Cordova said she was “so inspired and impressed” by Stay Safe East’s work, particularly as it is led and controlled by disabled people.

And she praised Ruth Bashall’s work, which she said was “an inspiration to many”, and said she had “put solidarity into action” and “really was a voice for the voiceless”.

Savi Hensman, chair of Stay Safe East, said that Bashall was “deeply compassionate, committed to solidarity, and with a passion for social justice, as well as practical caring and changing policy structures and attitudes”.

A long-term client of Stay Safe East said in a statement read out at the event that Bashall had saved her life through the support she provided, and that she was an “extraordinary person” and had empowered her, taught her resilience, and helped her to live and “not to just exist”.

Credit for this article goes to the Disability News Service