Clegg: Disability comments offensive

16 October 2014 Last updated at 10:11

Comments by a welfare minister that some disabled people were not worth the minimum wage were "deeply distressing", Nick Clegg has said.

The deputy PM said there was a serious debate about helping disabled people to get into work but Lord Freud's use of the word "worth" had been "offensive".

But Mr Clegg did not call for the Conservative peer to resign.

Lord Freud apologised in a statement but Labour wants him to come to the Lords later to explain in person.

It follows a row at Prime Minister's Questions about the comments, recorded at a Conservative Party fringe event, a transcript of which was circulated by Labour on Wednesday.

'Touched a nerve'

Lord Freud was recorded responding to Tunbridge Wells councillor David Scott, who expressed concern that some "mentally damaged individuals" who want to work are unable to do so because employers were unwilling to pay them the £6.50-an-hour minimum wage.

The minister reportedly said there "was no system for going below the minimum wage".

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I was foolish to accept the premise of the question"

End Quote Lord Freud

But he added: "You make a really good point about the disabled ... There is a group - and I know exactly who you mean - where actually, as you say, they're not worth the full wage and actually I'm going to go and think about that particular issue, whether there is something we can do nationally, and without distorting the whole thing, which actually if someone wants to work for £2 an hour, and it's working can we actually..."

Asked about the remarks on his LBC Radio phone-in show, Call Clegg, the Lib Dem deputy prime minister said that there was a "legitimate debate" about making sure people with disabilities are "given as fair a chance as anybody to work".

But he added: "I think what was so offensive to people about the remarks recorded at the Conservative Party conference that Lord Freud made was when he used the word 'worth'. I think that's what, quite rightly, touched a raw nerve because it is making a comment about someone's individual value."

He added: "That was deeply distressing and offensive to people".

Lord Freud was due at a debate in the Lords on Thursday but is now not scheduled to appear. Department for Work and Pensions sources said that was "not unrelated" to the row.

'Not end of matter'

But they say he will not resign and was not advocating working for less than the minimum wage, he was looking at whether the state should top up to those levels, if employers paid less - something that is not government policy.

Lord Freud, a former banker who has been a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions since 2010, offered a "full and unreserved apology" in a statement on Wednesday.

"I was foolish to accept the premise of the question," he said.

"To be clear, all disabled people should be paid at least the minimum wage, without exception, and I accept that it is offensive to suggest anything else."

But Labour said the apology was "not the end of the matter" while the Liberal Democrats said the remarks were "completely unacceptable".

A former adviser to the last Labour government, Lord Freud has been closely involved in the coalition's implementation of major benefits changes, such as the replacement of the disability living allowance with the personal independence payment and the rollout of Universal Credit, a consolidated single payment designed to encourage work.

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