3 December 2009
91 MPs have so far signed an early day motion urging the government to drop proposals to cut disability living allowance and attendance allowance to fund the new National Care Service. Benefits and Work is urging members to put pressure on your own MP to sign, if they have not done so already.
Early day motions are a way that backbench MPs can show their support for, or anger about, issues of the day. They have no power to force a government to change course, but if enough MPs sign an early day motion against a proposal the cabinet knows it will have great difficulty winning a vote on the issue.
The Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance motion was sponsored by Liberal Democrat MP Bob Russell. It has so far been signed by just 91 MPs:
Conservatives: 15
Democratic Unionist Party: 4
Independent: 3
Labour: 34
Liberal Democrats: 28
Plaid Cymru: 2
Scottish National Party: 2
Social Democratic and Labour Party: 2
Ulster Unionist Party 1
Although it was the first early day motion laid down in this session of parliament, it is only the 9th most popular: 272 MPs have signed a motion relating to thalidomide and 164 in relation to local spending reports, for example.
We think it is time MPs who have not signed were put under pressure from voters to do so. We are urging Benefits and Work members to check if their own MP has signed the motion and, if not, to contact them and ask them to do sign:
EDM number 1 Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance.
You may want to tell them why DLA or AA are important to you. You may also want to tell them whether you will vote for them at the next general election if they do not sign this motion.
If they are a Tory MP you may want to point out that their own party is running a campaign called Protecting Britain’s Pensioners to save DLA and AA and asking the public to sign their petition. So it seems odd that so few Conservative members are supporting a similar petition for MPs.
We would also strongly recommend that you write to the letters page of local papers and reveal that your MP is refusing to fight for the well-being of elderly disabled people. They probably won’t like that, so close to a general election.
You can find out who your MP is here.
You can check if your MP has signed the motion here.
You can fax your MP for free here.
