Mary says “I left the Tories and joined the Greens because of the Independent Living Fund”

People who follow me on twitter will know that on Thursday, I joined Independent Living Fund recipient Mary Laver and her personal assistants, Mirror journalist Ros Wynne-Jones and Green party members and supporters as Mary travelled all the way from Westminster to Chingford in her wheelchair to protest at the government’s plan to close the ILF. The ILF is used by profoundly disabled people to pay for the extra carer hours that they need to lead independent lives.

That walk to Chingford was a good effort – took us nearly nine hours. Ouch. Respect to all concerned.

In the short film below which I made about the march, Mary says that she left the Conservative party and joined the Green party, because of the present government’s decision to close the ILF (at 5.20 in the video). Labour won’t keep the fund open – although Andy Burnham agrees that ILF recipients need some sort of protection when the fund closes, he wasn’t able to say what those protections would be when I last filmed him. Labour’s hopes for social care seem to be entirely tied up in Burnham’s plans for integrated health and social care services – a plan which is obviously a very long way from being implemented.

Without the ILF, a lot of disabled people will be in a very bad place. They’ll rely on councils to provide those extra care hours – councils that can’t meet demand for care as it is. Funding will be devolved to councils, but only for a limited time, and there are no plans to ringfence the devolved money at many councils.