May May she takes it away

PM finally meets real people and desperate Cathy puts her right about life on benefits .. this callous Government have stripped her of almost everything

THERESA May came face to face with the reality of Tory cuts yesterday when a woman confronted her over the Government’s shameful record on disability benefits.

Cathy Mohan, who has learning difficulties, gave the Prime Minister a lecture in austerity economics when she broke through May’s carefully stage-managed campaign.

Confronting the PM during a walkabout in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Cathy summed up the legacy of seven years of Tory Government.

She said: “The fatcats keep the money and us lot get nothing.

“Do you know what I want? I want my disability living allowance to come back, not have PIP (personal independence payments) and get nothing.”

Distraught Cathy told the PM: “I can’t live on £100 a month. They just took it all away from me. You better help me, please.”

May was touring a market with local Tory candidate Nicola Blackwood, talking to shoppers and stallholders when the angry voter turned on her.

The PM tried to say that she was giving mental health more priority but Mohan interrupted: “I mean people in wheelchairs, and everybody, not just myself. For all of us.”

May replied: “Nicola can help you specifically. What I can do is ensure we are giving more help to people with mental health problems and learning disabilities.”

She added that the Government were focusing on “those most in need”.

Later, when May appeared on a Facebook interview with ITV’s Robert Peston, she was asked repeatedly about personal independence payments.

The benefit replaced disablility living allowance but has been criticised by many, like Cathy, who say they have been left struggling to survive.

The PM was ambushed again when Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn texted in to challenge her to a TV debate.

Peston told May he had received a query from “Jeremy Corbyn of Islington”.

Corbyn said: “Hello Theresa May, as Prime Minister you’ve served your elite friends by giving them tax cuts when wages have stagnated, housebuilding is at its lowest since the 1920s, there are 20,000 fewer police on our streets since 2010 and the NHS is in crisis. Do you not think the British people deserve to see me and you debate live and on television?”

May responded: “What I think is more important is that I and he take questions directly from the voters.

“I don’t think people get much out of seeing politicians having a go at each other, I think people want to hear directly.”

Corbyn hit back: “It’s weak leadership to hide from your record.”

On Thursday, ITV will host a live televised election debate in Salford. They said that an invitation to the leaders of the seven biggest parties will remain open until the broadcast starts.

May has insisted she will not take part in any TV head-to-head clashes with her rivals, while Corbyn has indicated he will not take part if the PM is absent.

The incident in Abingdon echoed the 2001 election campaign when angry Sharon Storer, whose partner was a cancer patient, confronted Tony Blair on the steps of a Birmingham hospital as he prepared to launch the Labour manifesto.

And in 2010, Gordon Brown’s campaign to took a disastrous turn after Gillian Duffy confronted him in Rochdale about Labour’s record on immigration and he was later overheard describing her as “that bigoted woman”.

May was also criticised during her walkabout in Abingdon when she stopped at a pet food stall in the market.

She was questioned by pensioner Duncan Macarthey, 83, on why high earners were able to take advantage of Government schemes to buy new homes.

He said: “Rich people jumped on the bandwagon of that and got houses that they shouldn’t have got.”

May replied: “Help-to-buy is working because tens of thousands of young people have been able to get on to the housing ladder.”

Duncan said later: “I’m very annoyed.”

Ian Lavery, Labour’s national elections coordinator, said: “This is what happens when Theresa May meets real people.

“The Tories have failed to support disabled people and those with learning difficulties, while changes to personal independence payments will deny 350,000 disabled people the support they need.

“Only a Labour government will support those in need and build a Britain for the many, not the few.”

I can’t live on £100 a month. You better help me, please

CATHY