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DAVID CAMERON was challenged yesterday to come clean on whether the government had investigated Lord Freud’s suggestion of slashing the minimum wage for disabled people.
Labour demanded that the Prime Minister reveal all internal papers and details of work commissioned about cutting pay for disabled workers.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves wrote to Mr Cameron after it was revealed that Lord Freud said disabled people were “not worth the full wage.”
Her letter was issued as at least one Tory backbench MP defended the Welfare Reform Minister’s statement.
He had told fellow Tories at a conference fringe meeting that he was “going to go and think about that particular issue, whether there is something we can do nationally.”
Mr Cameron insisted “those have never been the views of the government” when Ed Miliband confronted him with the comments at Prime Minister’s questions on Wednesday.
But Ms Reeves challenged him to prove it by releasing all related research carried out by or for departments over the last 12 months.
She also called on the PM to order Lord Freud to come and explain his comments before Parliament.
The Tories had told their Lords frontbencher not to take part in today’s social justice debate in a bid to hide from the growing media storm over his comments.
But Ms Reeves said: “If you cannot agree to this, people will only conclude that your government has something to hide — that you cannot publicly defend your position in relation to disabled people’s entitlement to the minimum wage — and your inaction will haunt you.”
A Number 10 spokeswoman told the press yesterday morning that Mr Cameron had not even discussed events with Lord Freud.
She said the PM’s office had instead “made clear the PM’s views.”
Tory Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price broke her party’s line by tweeting: “Anyone who denies that the minimum wage is a barrier to employment for the less able is living in cloud cuckoo land.”
Hitting back, Labour disability spokeswoman Kate Green said: “It is David Cameron who is living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks Lord Freud should still be in his job.”
