Scapegoating' Campaigners and peer say cuts unfair

Toxic rhetoric around benefits cuts has stirred up hatred for disabled people, Tanni Grey-Thompson has said, as campaigners warned the government's welfare reform plans are "brutal and reckless".

- Jessica Murray

Grey-Thompson, the Paralympic champion and crossbench peer, said she had been contacted by disabled people saying they had been shouted at in the street by passersby telling them they're "going to get their benefits cut".

"There's some really horrible rhetoric around at the moment," she said. "It's not a great time for disabled people. And the worry is that this doesn't do the right things to get people into work. It's whether it could push people who are currently just about surviving into greater poverty or more need."

The TV presenter and disability advocate Sophie Morgan, who is paraplegic, said she saw no justification for the cuts and said the "scapegoating of disabled people is not only toxic, it could be really fatal".