Disabled people faced off with armed police at Parliament on July 19 as they were told their T-shirts exposing the savage nature of Tory cuts were off-limits, the next day.
The campaigners were there to lobby MPs over the horrendous toll the Conservatives’ austerity and blitz on essential benefits has had on disabled people. The rally was part of a week of action organised by Disabled People Against Cuts to flag up the brutal nature of the attacks.
But as police walled off the entrance, they were told to take off their tops or cover them up. Some of the banned T-shirts simply carried the DPAC linked-arms logo.
One man was barred from meeting his MP because his top read: “This is what a person with an invisible disability looks like.”
It took the direct intervention of Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a staunch ally of disabled people in their fight for justice, to get the police to lift their blockade.