{"id":164939,"date":"2025-06-07T12:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T12:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/164939\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T12:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T12:27:10","slug":"labour-just-blocked-a-disability-equality-champion-for-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/164939\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour just blocked a Disability Equality Champion for London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>London Assembly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/topics\/Labour-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Labour Party<\/a> members have abstained on a motion calling for a Disability Equality Champion for London. This is despite the fact they had previously unanimously supported it \u2013 just nine months ago.<\/p>\n<p>Labour London Assembly members U-turn on motion for a Disability Equality Champion<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday 5 June, Mayor Sadiq Khan declined to implement the original motion the London Assembly passed with cross-party agreement on 5 September 2024. Khan claimed that his deputy mayor for communities and social justice already adequately covers disability issues.<\/p>\n<p>However Disabled People\u2019s Organisations such as Inclusion London have repeated calls for a dedicated leader focused on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/topics\/disability\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disability<\/a> equality in City Hall.<\/p>\n<p>Assembly Member Gareth Roberts, who proposed the motion, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Nine months ago, every single party in the Assembly \u2013 including Labour \u2013 recognized that 1.2 million disabled Londoners deserve dedicated representation and leadership.<\/p>\n<p>The needs of disabled people haven\u2019t changed, but Labour\u2019s commitment to them seemingly has.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>London: a city of systemic exclusion for disabled people<\/p>\n<p>The motion comes as Disabled People\u2019s Organisations continue to highlight systemic exclusion from City Hall processes. This includes the current \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.london.gov.uk\/programmes-strategies\/planning\/london-plan\/towards-new-london-plan-consultation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Towards a New London Plan<\/a>\u2018 consultation which lacked accessible formats like Easy Read and BSL versions that should be available as standard issue.<\/p>\n<p>Roberts added:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Clearly, the status quo we have at City Hall just isn\u2019t good enough, when the lived perspective of disabled Londoners is so regularly excluded from City Hall policy and planning decisions. It\u2019s time we had someone with the mandate and focus to turn that around.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Hina Bokhari OBE, who seconded the motion, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>At a time when so many people are struggling and worried about the prospect of brutal cuts to PIP, it\u2019s more important than ever that the Mayor does everything in his power to listen to, support and work alongside disabled Londoners. A more inclusive London starts with a more inclusive City Hall.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Featured image via the Canary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London Assembly Labour Party members have abstained on a motion calling for a Disability Equality Champion for London.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[69088,748,347,393,4884,528,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-164939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-ableism","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-disability","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-labour-party","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114642081825892758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}