Candidates from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties will face questions from over 100 disabled people at the UK’s national disability hustings event for the 2017 General Election.
Penny Mordaunt, Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work (Conservative), Kate Green, Former Shadow Minister for Equalities (Labour) and Baroness Brinton, Party Chair (Liberal Democrats) will attend the event, hosted by charity coalitions Disability Benefits Consortium, Disability Charities Consortium and the Care and Support Alliance.
Anticipated topics include disability benefits, social care and low employment levels for disabled people, which currently stands at just 46% for disabled people and 5.8% for people with a learning disability.
Campaigners have raised concerns that, due to the snap nature of this election, it risks being inaccessible to millions of disabled people. There has been little time to organise regional hustings events, meaning this event will be the only major chance for disabled people to question candidates on their policies.
Mencap, part of the Disability Benefits Consortium, has campaigned for each of the parties to produce their Manifestos in Easy Read format to ensure people with a learning disability can make an informed decision on how to vote. The charity has also produced accessible Easy Read guides to the General Election.
The event will be livestreamed and will take questions from Twitter users.
