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The government’s latest disgrace over disability benefits stinks so badly I have to air it straight away.

Do you remember how, on April 21, I wrote to three of the most powerful figures in the UK government – Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall – warning them in no uncertain terms about the deadly consequences of their plans to cut disability benefits?

If you don’t, you can refresh your memory right here.

The letter laid out evidence from peer-reviewed academic studies, DWP internal statistics, NHS-commissioned reports, coroners’ inquests, and United Nations findings.

It showed that past welfare reforms had led directly to deaths, increased poverty, and caused mental health deterioration on a horrifying scale.

I made it clear: if they pushed ahead with these new measures, they could not later claim they had not been warned.

And in response I received nothing.

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The government did not deign to reply for nearly 10 weeks.

And then, finally, on June 27 an email turned up in my spam folder. I didn’t know it was there until late last night, when I was checking it for something else.

In other words, I was left hanging for 10 weeks – to the day – after I sent my letter.

That, in itself, is unacceptable.

It is hugely disrespectful. Ministers are expected to respond within three weeks at the most.

This tardiness leaves me with the impression that these so-called Labour Party ministers are so entitled, so full of their own self-importance, that they did not consider my letter worthy of their elevated attention until they could fob me off with something written for a different purpose entirely – anything would do.

You will see that I was right in that belief.

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The response was from Sir Stephen Timms, the Minister for Social Security and Disability, and despite the formalities, it quickly became obvious that this was not a personal reply to my letter.

It was a boilerplate mass communication, timed to coincide with the Labour government’s attempt to pacify a rebellion among its own MPs over the same policy package.

Let’s be clear: I had not written to Sir Stephen Timms. I had written to the Secretary of State, the Prime Minister, and the Chancellor. None of them responded.

The government sat on a detailed account of the human cost of its plans for nearly 10 weeks, then brushed it off with a generic press release dressed up as a reply.

The letter from Timms (Sir Stephen? I should bleedin’ cocoa. He should be stripped of his knighthood for his part in this disability benefit cuts fiasco) made no attempt to address the evidence I presented. It did not acknowledge the:

• 100,000+ deaths within six months of “fit for work” decisions
• 590 suicides directly linked to benefit reforms
• UN condemnation of the UK for human rights abuses against disabled people
• DWP data showing PIP fraud at just 0.4 per cent
• Resolution Foundation warning that 250,000 more people will be pushed into poverty

Instead, it made vague claims about protecting current PIP recipients and promising a future review of assessments.

It attempted to reassure readers (remember, this was a generic press release dressed up as a personal response) by saying that “those who cannot [work], should be protected” – ignoring the historical fact that under nearly identical policies, they were not protected at all.

Timms’s response is a perfect example of government by deflection.

There was no engagement with the substance of my warning.

No recognition of the overwhelming weight of documented harm – and after 14 years of opposing successive Tory governments on these issues, Timms has no excuse not to know about it.

And there was no sign that the government is willing to change course based on either data or lived experience.

Worse, the response was timed not to show leadership, but to manage rebellion.

Labour’s original plan to push through these benefit changes was met with resistance from backbench MPs.

It was only after the leadership began losing control of the narrative that ministers decided to issue these so-called “concessions” – and with them, letters like the one I received.

Well, they tried to fool the wrong man.

This isn’t compassion.

It’s damage control – and a poor attempt at it, at that.

It leaves every one of my original questions unanswered:

• Why are ministers pushing cuts that will disproportionately harm disabled people for a minimal gain in fraud reduction?
• Why is nearly all disability benefit reform rhetoric based on false premises about fraud and misuse?
• Why won’t the government publish full mortality data and commit to a public inquiry into past deaths linked to disability welfare policies?
• Why is the government treating disabled people as an acceptable casualty in its bid to appear economically tough?

The letter I received on June 27 isn’t a reply.

It’s a political memo.

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Ministers probably hope that by sending out these cut-and-paste replies, they can claim to have “engaged” with public concern while refusing to confront the devastating evidence of what their policies will do.

They’ll be mistaken in that.

Ministers are not entitled to ignore the people of the UK until it suits them to respond.

They are not entitled to deflect from direct evidence of harm.

They are not entitled to repeat the horrors of the past and expect no consequences.

And they are not entitled to pretend that a generic letter, issued to manage their own internal crisis, amounts to dialogue or accountability.

This government – and most especially the ministers I have named – must be held responsible – now, not later – for the damage it is already doing, and the deaths it is once again choosing to enable.

And, once more for old times’ sake: they cannot say they were not told.

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