Silence in the face of cruelty isn’t neutrality - it is complicity.

kevinndaws
Jul 9
3 min read

Today the Unite Policy Conference debated an Emergency Motion - Disabled Workers Oppose Welfare Reforms - which did not pull any punches when it says:

"Conference wishes to state clearly, and unequivocally, that no amount of 'concessions' will make this government Bill acceptable. Cuts made, to the limited support Disabled people rely on, must be resisted now and in the future."

All4 Inclusion totally agrees and would ask you to write to your MP urging them to vote against this much revised and renamed Universal Credit Bill. Please do that now by clicking here on this link

Don't leave it to other people to do this because they are probably leaving it to you. Please take a few minutes to write to Your MP NOW!

Phil Blundell moving the Emergency Motion - Disabled Workers Oppose Welfare Reforms

Phil Blundell, Vice-Chair of the Unite North West Disabled Members Committee, moved the Emergency Motion on behalf of the Unite National Disabled Members Committee.

Conference, I rise today with purpose and urgency - not just for myself, but for every member of Unite the union.

I’ve seen the best in people—and the worst. I’ve seen eyes filled with love and compassion… and those same eyes, moments later, darkened by indifference or disdain.

That contradiction mirrors the reality facing Disabled people today.

We are witnessing policy shaped not by empathy or fairness, but by arbitrary dates and cold calculations. On 26th June, the Government announced a so-called U-turn on Disability Benefits. Let me be clear—this is not a victory, it’s damage control. And the revised Bill? Still utterly unacceptable.

No amount of concessions can disguise cruelty.

Reduced Personal Independence Payment (PIP) criteria for new claimants will create a two-tier system. Our own members will be impacted—excluded from the tools needed to participate fully in the workforce.

Young Disabled people will be especially at risk. These cuts don’t just marginalise, they immobilise.

All this is being railroaded through Parliament—fast, reckless, and with no meaningful consultation. What kind of society decides a person’s worth by the calendar? One applies before the cut-off date and gets support. Another applies after - gets less - not because their needs changed, but because the rules did.

This isn’t reform. It’s rationing.

Let me be clear - disability doesn’t run on deadlines. Pain doesn’t pause for policy revisions. Accessibility doesn’t improve just because the spreadsheets say it’s time for savings. When reforms ignore lived reality, they aren’t reforms - they're betrayals.

I speak today not just as a campaigner—but as a 64-year-old man shaped by hardship, born into poverty in Liverpool. I’ve walked alongside the fair rights movement, I believed in a promised dawn under Labour. But today, under this Starmer-led government, the betrayal cuts deep.

I stand as a proud member of Labour, a role once filled with hope and pride, now weighed down by grief. The very people we vowed to protect—the Disabled, the elderly, the most vulnerable—are once again being asked to carry the burden.

Dan Smith seconding the Emergency Motion

This is not progress. It is erasure.

So today, I call on Unite to:

Unequivocally reject this sham of concessions.
Demand withdrawal of the Universal Credit and PIP Bill—and if passed, campaign fiercely for its repeal.
Stand shoulder to shoulder with Disabled people and Disabled workers - because an injustice to one is injustice to all.
Unite with the TUC, other unions, and Disabled people’s organisations to build an unstoppable coalition of resistance.

Because these cuts are not just budget lines. They are moral failures. Acts of cruelty dressed in parliamentary polish. And the slogan we carry is not just a phrase - it’s a principle:

Nothing about us without us.

Disabled people must be at the table—not on the menu.

Policies that shape our survival cannot be written in rooms we’re excluded from.

I’ve lived this struggle. I’ve fought through the maze of bureaucracy—not for privilege, but for basic rights. I've stood beside those exhausted by yet another form, another rejection, another rule.

The proposed two-tier system doesn’t just divide support - it divides people. It sends a message that some Disabled lives matter less. I reject that. And I know you do too.

So I ask: What kind of country do we want to be? One that sees disability through compassion - or one that filters it through fiscal convenience?

These are moral choices. And justice delayed is justice denied.