A Conservative MP has suggested that people with disabilities wanting to get on to the job ladder should be able to offer themselves for work at below the minimum wage.

Philip Davies claimed "vulnerable" people were disadvantaged in the workplace because they had to compete with able-bodied candidates for jobs, but could not offer to accept lower wages.

The MP for Shipley told the Commons during the second reading of the Employment Opportunities Bill: "The people who are most disadvantaged by the national minimum wage are the most vulnerable in society.

"My concern about it is it prevents those people from being given the opportunity to get the first rung on the employment ladder."





Mr Davies said he had spoken to people with mental health problems during a visit to the charity Mind and found they were "quite accepting" of the fact they would be overlooked.

"They were absolutely up front with me and they said that when they went for a job and they came across a situation where there were other people who had applied for that job, they've got mental health problems, other people haven't, they said to me 'Who would you take on?'," he told MPs.

Senior Tory Edward Leigh challenged Mr Davies, saying: "Forget the fact there's a minimum wage for a moment. Why actually should a disabled person work for less than £5.93 an hour? It's not a lot of money, is it?"





Mr Davies told him: "If an employer is looking at two candidates, one who has got disabilities and one who hasn't, and they have got to pay them both the same rate, I invite you to guess which one the employer is more likely to take on.

"Whether that is right or wrong, whether you would do that or wouldn't do, that to me is just the real world that we operate in."

He added that the people being penalised were "those people with those disabilities who are desperate to make a contribution to society, want to actually start getting on the employment ladder and find time and time again that the door is being closed in their face".





Speaking outside the Commons, Dame Anne Begg, who chairs the Work and Pensions Select Committee, said the comments were "utterly outrageous and unacceptable".

"To suggest disabled people should be treated as second-class citizens is shocking and shows just what a warped world some Tories demonstrate they inhabit," she added.

Sophie Corlett, director of external relations for Mind, described the suggestion as "preposterous".

"People with mental health problems should not be considered a source of cheap labour and should be paid appropriately for the jobs they do," she added.

"We should be trying be educate employers and challenge negative attitudes towards mental health problems rather than forcing people with mental health problems to undercut their way in to the workforce."