Philip Hammond causes storm with remarks about disabled workers

Disability charity Scope and others call for chancellor to withdraw his comments implying disabled people are to blame for sluggish economy

Disability charity Scope called on Philip Hammond to withdraw his "totally unacceptable and derogatory comments" after he said Britain's sluggish productivity could partly be blamed on more disabled people in the workforce .

In Wednesday's treasury select committee, the chancellor was asked about low economic productivity levels, which he had reported during the autumn Budget last month.

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Pretty shocked actually https://t.co/Z2fUrlwjE9

Shocking that Philip Hammond is trying to blame disabled people for low productivity! Disabled people contribute enormously and disability employment gap has barely changed since productivity started to stall. Disgusting scapegoating! https://t.co/1BpOF4i0nf