Esther McVey is a compulsive liar who should be kicked out of government

Evil eyes: Esther McVey seems to get a perverse thrill from pretending her government's policies are helping people; it is more likely they are driving the needy to despair and suicide.

Evil eyes: Esther McVey seems to get a perverse thrill from pretending her government’s policies are helping people; it is more likely they are driving the needy to despair and suicide.

Note to Iain Duncan Smith: It is not a good idea to try to inspire confidence in a £multi-billion “money pit” disaster by wheeling out Esther McVey to lie about it.

The woman dubbed “Fester McVile” by some commentators has accumulated a reputation so bad that the only way she can hide the metaphorical stink from the public is by associating with …Smith himself, in whose stench she seems almost fragrant. But not quite.

This is a woman who has lied to the public that it is impossible to carry out a cumulative assessment of the impact on the sick and disabled of the Coalition’s ‘final solution’ changes to the benefit system.

This is the woman who, in the face of public unrest about the prevalence of zero-hours contracts, announced that Job Centre advisors will now be able to force the unemployed into taking this exploitative work.

She has previously misled Parliament over the loophole in Bedroom Tax legislation that meant the government had removed Housing Benefit from thousands of people who were exempt from the measure – including Stephanie Bottrill, whose suicide has been attributed to the pressure of having to survive on less because of the tax. Asked how many people had been affected by the loophole, McVey played it down by claiming she did not know the answer, while other ministers suggested between 3,000 and 5,000. In fact, from Freedom of Information requests to which just one-third of councils responded, 16,000 cases were revealed.

Mark Hoban stood in for McVey to trot out the lie that independent reviews of the Work Capability Assessment had identified areas of improvement on which the government was acting. In fact, out of 25 recommendations in the Year One review alone, almost two-thirds were not fully and successfully implemented.

In a debate on food banks, McVey’s lies came thick and fast: She accused the previous Labour government of a “whirl of living beyond our means” that “had to come to a stop” without ever pausing to admit that it was Tory-voting bankers who had been living beyond their means, who caused the crash, and who are still living beyond their means today, because her corporatist (thank you, Zac Goldsmith) Conservative government has protected them.

She accused Labour of trying to keep food banks as “its little secret”, forcing Labour’s Jim Cunningham to remind us all that food banks were set up by churches to help refugees who were waiting for their asylum status to be confirmed – not as a support system for British citizens, as they have become under the Coalition’s failed regime.

She said the Coalition government was brought in to “solve the mess that Labour got us in”, which is not true – it was born from a backroom deal between two of the most unscrupulous party leaders of recent times, in order to ensure they and their friends could get their noses into the money trough (oh yes, there’s plenty of money around – but this government is keeping it away from you).

She said the Coalition had got more people into work than ever before – without commenting on the fact that the jobs are part-time, zero-hours, self-employed contracts that benefit the employers but exploit the workers and in fact propel them towards poverty.

She lied to Parliament, claiming that children are three times more likely to be in poverty if they are in a workless household. In fact, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in-work poverty has now outstripped that suffered by those in workless and retired households; children are more likely to be in poverty if their parents have jobs.

She attacked Labour for allowing five million people to be on out-of-work benefits, with two million children in workless households – but under her government the number of households suffering in-work poverty has risen to eight million (by 2008 standards), while workless or retired households in poverty have risen to total 6.3 million.

She claimed that 60,000 people were likely to use a food bank this year – but Labour’s Paul Murphy pointed out that 60,000 people will use food banks this year in Wales alone. The actual figure for the whole of the UK is 500,000.

She said the Coalition’s tax cuts had given people an extra £700 per year, without recognising that the real-terms drop in wages and rise in the cost of living means people will be £1,600 a year worse-off when the next general election takes place, tax cuts included. She said stopping fuel price increases meant families were £300 better-off, which is nonsense. Families cannot become better off because something has not happened; it’s like saying I’m better off because the roof of my house hasn’t fallen in and squashed me.

Her talents won exactly the recognition they deserved when her Wikipedia entry was altered to describe her as “the Assistant Grim Reaper for Disabled People since 2012, second only to Iain Duncan Smith. She was previously a television presenter and businesswoman before deciding to branch out into professional lying and helping disabled people into the grave.”

In her food bank speech, she also said the government had brought in Universal Credit to ensure that three million people become better-off. There’s just one problem with that system – it doesn’t work.

This brings us back to the current issue. Last month, in a written answer to Labour’s Rachel Reeves, McVey claimed that – and let’s have a direct quote so there can be no doubt that these were her words: “The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has approved the [Universal Credit] Strategic Outline Business Case.” That would mean the Treasury was willing to continue funding the disaster.

In fact, civil service boss Bob Kerslake admitted yesterday that the Treasury has not signed off the scheme, which the Major Projects Authority classifies as being at serious risk of failure.

Even for a minister in the Coalition government, this woman has lied far too often. She is a danger to the national interest.

So come on, Cameron.

We know you’re a liar but you refuse to go.

We know …Smith is a liar but you refuse to sack him.

Here’s Esther McVey. Her lies have made her utterly worthless to you. She is a liability.

Kick her in the backbenches.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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39 Comments

  1. […] Note to Iain Duncan Smith: It is not a good idea to try to inspire confidence in a £multi-billion "money pit" disaster by wheeling out Esther McVey to lie about it. The woman dubbed "Hester McVile"…  […]

  2. gfranklinpercival July 8, 2014 at 1:43 pm - Reply

    The continuance in place of Smith and McVey, despite their tremendous wastage of public funds and monumental incompetence, leads one to wonder what hold they have over Cameron.

  3. Chris fowler July 8, 2014 at 1:45 pm - Reply

    Kick her in the cr****!

    • Mike Sivier July 8, 2014 at 1:47 pm - Reply

      Some letters of Chris’s last word have been removed because VP does not approve of violence!

  4. JBS July 8, 2014 at 1:50 pm - Reply

    Good post, tells it like it is. Some people call her ‘Fester McVile’, too.

    Cameron won’t get rid of her because whenever he needs to he can point to her and say, ‘Look – the Conservative party isn’t just the party of upper-class men from the south of England’. However, I can only hope that the voters of Wirral West will boot her out of Parliament completely come May 2015. Her Parliamentary majority is very slim.

    What would she do then? Perhaps go back into television, or, failing that, take a job with her family’s demolition firm.

    • Mike Sivier July 8, 2014 at 1:53 pm - Reply

      FESTER! That’s what I meant!
      (I was going to say it’s what I was groping for, but that concept is too hideous to contemplate.)
      Cameron’s got Mike Penning now – he doesn’t need McVile anymore.
      The voters of Wirral West will hopefully remember her tactless Tweet during the Hillsborough memorial service.
      I would hope that, if she is removed from Parliament, she’ll be unable to find employment in television again.

      • Elizabeth Maxwell July 8, 2014 at 3:30 pm - Reply

        I am from Liverpool and can assure you that the good people there are now working as hard as possible for her removal

    • Tony Spencer July 8, 2014 at 4:15 pm - Reply

      Or sell herself down in Liverpool docks,but who’d want the lying wh**e?

      • Frances July 8, 2014 at 9:47 pm - Reply

        She’s not a liverpool mp Elizabeth so you’re not trying hard enough

  5. sdbast July 8, 2014 at 1:55 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on sdbast.

  6. stewilko July 8, 2014 at 2:06 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on stewilko's Blog and commented:
    Nicely put and says it all. Just wish somebody with a backbone would stand up this shower of liars in Parliament. Owen Jones has been doing his bit, I can’t remember the name of the other bloke who has come out blasting these people for what they are. Only to say he has done some brilliant speeches against the bedroom tax. A brilliant speech in honour of Tony Benn and the miners’ strikes.

  7. Mr.Angry July 8, 2014 at 2:12 pm - Reply

    The witch had the audacity to protest along with others to prevent the Mersey tunnel charges increasing. After her shenanigans who can afford to drive through the Mersey tunnel unless your a Tory and on expenses.

    • Frances July 8, 2014 at 9:56 pm - Reply

      You complain that she protested against increases in tunnel charges, and then you complain tunnel charges are too much and who could afford them. Can you not see the craziness of that statement?
      Do Labour not get expenses by the way?

      • Mike Sivier July 8, 2014 at 10:13 pm - Reply

        It’s not a crazy statement. There was hypocrisy in McVey joining a protest against the charges.

  8. A6er July 8, 2014 at 2:22 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.

  9. Tony Britton July 8, 2014 at 2:48 pm - Reply

    She lied about DLA too – Government minister Esther McVey’s untrue claims about Disability Living Allowance http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/18291

  10. Samuel Miller (@Hephaestus7) July 8, 2014 at 2:49 pm - Reply

    Many people, myself included, thought it was inappropriate for Esther McVey to attack disabled people last Easter. She has never apologized.

    I have more respect for Mike Penning, who has been frank and open about the failings of his department.

  11. Para July 8, 2014 at 2:54 pm - Reply

    gfranklinpercival… My thoughts too

  12. Abdul Aziz July 8, 2014 at 3:59 pm - Reply

    Your article states that she has “misled parliament” why doesn’t it say “has lied to parliament” you use words that are establishment acceptable. She is a liar say it like it is.

    • Mike Sivier July 8, 2014 at 4:18 pm - Reply

      Have another look at the headline and think again: “Esther McVey is a compulsive liar” seems to have all the information you need.

  13. Dave July 8, 2014 at 4:03 pm - Reply

    When she likened benefit sanctions – y’know, making people absolutely penniless, as being akin to a teacher giving out lines or detentions, it was obvious that she lives in a different universe.

    http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/esther-mcvey-says-benefit-sanctions-6323730

  14. Norma Roberts July 8, 2014 at 4:15 pm - Reply

    She was also the one who said that three bed houses, which were lying empty due to the bedroom tax, should be “chopped up” to make one and two bed homes! So not only is she a liar, she is stupid as well!

  15. […] Source: Esther McVey is a compulsive liar who should be kicked out of government […]

  16. paulmabbo July 8, 2014 at 5:49 pm - Reply

    The is worse than IDS. ‘Return to unit’ at least has an element of incompetence to excuse his nastiness. This woman knows exactly what she’s doing – that makes her pure evil.

    Oh ok, I lied about IDS

  17. hstorm July 8, 2014 at 5:52 pm - Reply

    Except of course, being a compulsive liar is what makes her fit into this Government like a foot into a slipper.

  18. birdie59 July 8, 2014 at 6:24 pm - Reply

    It would be really good if you’d hyperlink to the evidence for your statements – I”m not doubting that it exists, but there are those who will…

    • Mike Sivier July 8, 2014 at 6:28 pm - Reply

      Today’s article was an experiment. Usually – as you’ll know – I religiously link to my evidence. This time – because previous VP articles contain all the links to the evidence (apart from the material to which I did provide a link) – I thought I’d give the links a miss and see how long it would take someone to do as you describe. Hasn’t happened yet…
      I will get round to it. Haven’t got the energy at the moment.

  19. Sharon Gifford July 8, 2014 at 6:48 pm - Reply

    I am really enjoying your blog,I have done for a while, but haven’t commented before.

    Would it be OK if I reblogged this?

    • Mike Sivier July 8, 2014 at 7:28 pm - Reply

      Sure. The best way is to use the headline, directly quote the first few paragraphs, and then say that the rest is at… the URL of this blog. I do that for blogs I can’t directly reblog, like Scriptonite yesterday, for example. That way, you and I both get traffic.

      • Joanna July 8, 2014 at 10:42 pm - Reply

        Ok that was 2 wasted hours of my life that I Won’t get back!!!
        The questioning was incredibly Lame!!! someone needs to take that delusional Bitch out, and I do not mean for dinner.

        What they should have asked is, what extra financial support would be given to job seekers, when they are required to work 35 hours to get a job? What job seekers get is not enough to subsidise their job seeking at the whim of mcvey, who seems to delight in treating adults as children!!!

  20. jaypot2012 July 8, 2014 at 6:54 pm - Reply

    The woman is a disgrace to her sex! I wouldn’t trust the lying cow with anything. She may be the scapegoat that is going to go before the next election. Isn’t there going to be another cabinet re-shuffle before the election? If so, let’s hope that she is one of the first ministers to go back to the backbenches – along with – hmmm, list it too long!

  21. jaypot2012 July 8, 2014 at 6:55 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on Jay's Journal and commented:
    Fester McVile and her lies, lies, lies…

  22. AM-FM July 8, 2014 at 10:25 pm - Reply

    You missed some favourites,

    “There are no targets”

    “Sanctions are only used as a last resort”

    Here’s a good one.
    3 Feb 2014
    “The Work programme is payment by results. Not only does the Work programme support people into employment, it is also designed with the crucial aim of keeping them there. It encourages long-term private sector employment, not a short term fix. Providers are paid according to the results they deliver, not rewarded for failure.”

    A few interesting graphs of the Work Programme’s fantastic ‘success’ here:

    http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/07/welfare-work-firms-are-being-paid-five-times-over-job-half-don

    • Mike Sivier July 8, 2014 at 10:27 pm - Reply

      I knew I was going to miss some howlers. I was going for the most recent boobs, and simply worked my way back through my own articles.

  23. casalealex July 9, 2014 at 8:10 am - Reply

    Ah well, Cruella McVey is holding the sword of Damocles over the heads of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable disabled people.

    Deliberately delaying reassessments until after the General Election, in order to obstruct any outcry that could generate it becoming an issue during the election campaign!

    Cruella maintains the delay is so that the Government can learn from an ‘independent’ review of the new system planned for 2014.

    Cruella said, “This means we can learn from the early introduction of PIP – testing our process, and making sure the assessment is working correctly before we embark on higher volumes.”

    It is worrying that Cruella has set out very clearly the numbers of people who she believes will qualify for the new benefit, well before the ‘independent’ review has reported on it’s findings!

    There is no doubt that, as has happened often recently, the public will not be privy to the findings of this ‘review’; and that is why Cruella has given her figures in advance.

    In April 2014 Cruella was criticized for attacking Wirral Labour Group in a tweet published at the time a memorial service for the Hillsborough Disaster was being held at Anfield Stadium. On BBC Radio Merseyside, she claimed regret for the mistiming of her communication. During this interview, a voice can clearly be heard whispering “say I didn’t send it”.

    McVey then claims she didn’t personally send the tweet. Nasty piece of work!

    Cruella’s family is in the demolition business….enough said!

  24. […] Esther McVey is a compulsive liar who should be kicked out of government. […]

  25. amnesiaclinic July 9, 2014 at 9:48 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on amnesiaclinic and commented:
    A catalogue of lies….

  26. Damo July 28, 2014 at 8:52 pm - Reply

    Yet another poor sod dies of starvation after haveing his benifits cut an ex soldier died of starvation ….round up all the tories and……………..well you know

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