Honour work tests pledge, urges MP

OLDHAM MP Michael Meacher is urging the new disability minister to honour the promise made by her predecessor to look at alternatives to work capability assessments.

The Oldham West and Royton MP said Esther McVey should stand by a pledge made in a meeting with campaigners that any credible alternative to the widely criticised assessments would be considered.

The Labour MP said: “She has had time to settle into her new role and now I’ll be pushing for a meeting. “We fought hard to get the former disability minister to listen, and we must act again. It is too serious an issue to just hope the minister will act. It is destroying peoples’ lives.”

Mr Meacher has campaigned for the assessments carried out by French firm Atos to be scrapped after his constituent Colin Traynor died after being considered fit to work. Mr Traynor had suffered from severe epilepsy all his life.

Mr Meacher added:“I continue to receive dozens of letters that tell heart-rending stories about lives that have been wrecked, even destroyed, by the callousness of government regulations as administered by the French IT company, ATOS.”