Philip Davies, the MP for Shipley, claimed the disabled or those with mental health problems were at a disadvantage because they could not offer to work for less money.
Relaxing the law would help some to compete more effectively for jobs in “the real world” in which they are “by definition” less productive than those without disabilities, he claimed.
The remarks stunned MPs on all sides and forced Downing Street to distance the Prime Minister from Mr Davies. Charities and equality campaigners condemned the suggestion as “outrageous”. During a Parliamentary debate, Mr Davies told MPs that the minimum wage of £5.93 per hour meant disabled people who wanted to work found the door being “closed in their face”.
“The people who are most disadvantaged by the national minimum wage are the most vulnerable in society,” he said. “My concern about it is it prevents those people from being given the opportunity to get the first rung on the employment ladder.”
He said that, during a visit to the charity Mind, he had spoken to people with mental health problems who viewed it as “inevitable” that someone without such difficulties would be offered a job ahead of them.
Sophie Corlett, of Mind, described Mr Davies’s suggestion as “preposterous”. “People with mental health problems should not be considered a source of cheap labour and should be paid appropriately for the jobs they do,” she said.
Dame Anne Begg, the Labour MP who heads the Commons work and pensions committee and uses a wheelchair, said Mr Davies’s remarks were “outrageous and unacceptable”.
A Downing Street spokesman added: “The Government would reject any suggestion for disabled people to be able to opt out of the national minimum wage. The aim of the national minimum wage is to establish fairness in the workplace and one of its key principles is to protect the most vulnerable workers.”
The MP was warned that he would be questioned over the remarks by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
A commission spokesman asked: “Is he arguing that Richard Branson, by definition, is less productive than people who don’t have dyslexia? Or that Winston Churchill was unfit to run the country because of his depression?”
Mr Davies appeared unrepentant, however, blaming criticism running on the Twitter microblogging website on “Left-wing hysteria”. He later told BBC Radio 4 that disabled people should be allowed to “prove themselves” before moving up the pay scale.
Smug oaf speaks.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/858359...ory-MP-suggests.html
