Yahoo News Theresa May confronted by angry voter over cuts to disability benefits
Theresa May has been challenged by an angry voter while on the campaign trail in Oxfordshire as the Prime Minister was taken to task over cuts to disability benefits.
Mrs May was visiting Abingdon market when she was confronted by a middle-aged woman who said her name was Cathy.
The woman asked Mrs May what she would do to help people with learning disabilities before suggesting that “the fat cats keep the money and us lot get nothing”.
She also launched an attack on the Government’s Personal Independence Payment (PIP) system as she said she wanted disabled people to “not have their money taken away from them”.
Mrs May listened and tried to respond, eventually telling the woman that the Government is now providing more help to people with learning disabilities and mental health problems.
Mrs May was making her way through the market when Cathy asked her: “Theresa, are you going to help people with learning disabilities?
“I am being serious. I want you to do something for us.”
Mrs May then started to respond and said: “We have got a lot of plans for people with mental health…”
But Cathy interjected and said: “And learning disabilities because I have got mild learning disabilities and I haven’t got a carer at the moment and I am angry.
“I would like somebody to help me because I can’t do everything that I want to do.
“Talk about everybody, not just me, I am talking about for everybody who has got mental (health problems) and everybody who has got learning disabilities.
“I want them not have their money taken away from them and being crippled.”
Mrs May again started to respond and began: “We are going to do a number of…”
But Cathy interrupted and said: “The fat cats keep the money and us lot get nothing.”
The Prime Minister tried again and said: “Cathy, we are going to do a number of things, let me just tell you one thing which isn’t about money…”
Cathy then interrupted again and said: “Do you know what I want? I want my disability living allowance to come back, not have PIP and get nothing.
“I can’t live on £100 a month. They took it all away from me.”
Mrs May said: “What I can do is ensure that we are giving more help to people with mental health problems and learning disabilities and that is exactly what we are doing and we made an announcement the other day.”
Cathy interjected: “I mean people in wheelchairs as well and everybody. I’m not just (talking about) myself, for all of us.”
Mrs May replied: “That is what we want to ensure when we look at the help that we are giving to people with any disability it’s that particularly we focus on those who are most in need.”
Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, sought to capitalise on the exchange, tweeting: “PM comes face to face with the consequences of the brutal cuts in support for disabled people.”
The conversation between Cathy and Mrs May will almost inevitably be compared to Tony Blair’s infamous confrontation with an angry voter called Sharon Storer back in 2001 when he was attacked over the state of the NHS.
