My latest column for the Ham & High is published online here or support your local campaigning newspaper and pick up a print edition available in newsagents from 7 December.

“I’ve been struck whilst watching the COVID inquiry by the disregard the men at the top of the Tory Government, and it was mainly men, seemed to have for vulnerable people.

Not only the crass cruelty of “let the bodies pile high” or “just let people die” comments supposedly made by Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, but the way disabled people’s voices weren’t heard, care homes were left to fend for themselves, and young people’s needs were simply forgotten – a price we are still paying today.

I found myself reminded of this when the Tory spin machine cranked into gear ahead of the Autumn Statement.  Desperate to turn attention away from their own appalling record of rising taxes, falling living standards and the highest NHS waiting lists since records began, they instead decided to talk tough about disabled people “doing their duty” and getting a job or have their benefits slashed.

No-one disputes that if you can work, you should.  It’s better for you as well as for society.  But in chasing headlines, Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are showing utter disregard to what might be the reason people can’t.

It’s no coincidence that the number of people out of work due to long term sickness has soared at the same time as a record 7.8 million people are stuck on NHS waiting lists, one million people are waiting for specialist mental health care, and we have a benefits system that penalises people for trying to work.

Where was the plan to address any of this in the Autumn Statement?  This poor excuse of a proposal will cause huge anxiety for disabled people yet will do nothing to change the state of our health service or our jobcentres after a decade of Tory failure.  Labour has a plan to cut waiting lists by investing an extra £1.1 billion in delivering 2 million more appointments.  We’d recruit 8,500 more mental health professionals so people get the help they need when they need it, overhaul our job centres, improve rights to flexible working from day one and change the benefit system so it supports people into good jobs but doesn’t abandon them if it doesn’t work out.

The COVID inquiry is shining a light on what happens when you don’t consider the people affected in your decision making.  It doesn’t look from this latest botched idea that the Tories have learned any lessons from their mistakes.”