DISABILITY campaigners occupied the entrance to the House of Commons today after they were blocked by security guards – despite having permission to enter.

The campaigners were delivering 650 MPs copies of a book revealing damning evidence of deaths and suffering caused among disabled people denied benefits since 2010.

A coalition of disability campaign groups raised £6,000 to provide every MP with the book – How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence – due to fears that the Labour government may continue, or even worsen, the policies that led to the deaths of disabled people denied benefits.

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) campaigner Ellen Clifford told the Morning Star: “There were 40 or 50 of us.

“We’d arranged to meet Baroness Christine Blower at Portcullis House to get us in but the security guards wouldn’t let us take the books in.

“There were MPs coming down asking for their copies.”

The guards eventually agreed that the books could go through the House of Commons postal system’s security checks.

The campaigners included relatives of disabled people who died – some taking their own lives – after their benefits were “sanctioned” by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).

Among them was Gill Thompson whose disabled brother, ex-soldier David Clapson, was found dead in 2013 after his benefits were stopped for two months because he missed two meetings with DWP officials.

She told the Morning Star: “He was at a time in his life when he needed help and it wasn’t there.

“It’s not right. It has got to change.”