DISABILITY campaigners in Wales have hit out at the sham consultation offered by the Westminster government over proposed cuts to welfare payments.

Protesters gathered in Swansea late today to continue a protest that started in Cardiff on Monday when the Cardiff jobcentre was occupied by a sit-in.

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) Wales, Unite Community, PCS and other groups joined together, sending a clear message to PM Sir Keir Starmer’s government: “You cut, we bleed.”

Unite community activist Mike Harrison said: “Please do not inflict this austerity on sick and disabled people in our communities.

“People are upset, they’re upset with this Westminster government, they’re upset with Labour.

“They don’t trust the party any more and can anyone really blame them? When they feel attacked, when they turn on the TV and the first thought is 'what have they done today’?”

NUJ disabled members’ activist Natasha Hirst said: “The green paper consultation process was appalling and inaccessible.

“It failed to genuinely engage with disabled people to redesign a system that works and provides the support needed.

“Wales has higher levels of poverty and disability and risks being especially hard hit by the cuts, in a way that undermines the aspirations of the Welsh government to improve disabled people’s access to their rights.”

The protests followed what campaigners in Wales called a “shambolic” meeting rearranged as an invitation-only event on June 23 at the British government’s offices in Cardiff.

DPAC members described the consultation as a “sham” and “chaotic” with those giving evidence leaving the room in distress.

“It was left to disabled people, not the DWP, to bring order to a chaotic meeting that showed no sign of starting half an hour after it meant to start,” Mr Harrison added.

Ms Hirst said that although the proposals to cut personal independence payments (PIP) had been removed from the Bill, there remained the proposals to cut the health element of universal credit for new claimants.

Labour MPs Richard Burgon and Neil Duncan-Jordan have tabled amendments to block a £2 billion cut in the welfare Bill, which will be voted on tomorrow in the Commons.

The amendments would prevent what Mr Burgon called the “especially cruel cut” to the universal credit health element, which would see 750,000 low-income sick and disabled people lose an average of £3,000 each year.