6 September 2023

What: Members of the Commons work and pensions select committee refuse to question the minister for disabled people about the draft Deaths by Welfare timeline, despite being briefed about it beforehand. The committee’s chair, Labour’s Sir Stephen Timms, himself a former DWP welfare reform minister, had been alerted to the timeline five days before the evidence session, while other committee members had been told about it two days before the evidence session with Chloe Smith. A draft version of the timeline had been published on 4 July, with an exclusive report in the Daily Mirror.

Why significant: As Kaliya Franklin, a member of the Spartacus Network, said: “Where are the voices to speak up for all these people who have lost their lives and where is the willingness among politicians not just to hold government to account for that but to ensure that it is not something that continues to happen for the next 30 years?”