Kerena Marchant: Why I’m standing at the next election – despite the lack of access for Disabled Parliamentary Candidates

A General Election is on the horizon. It could be announced as early as this week if Parliament call it as the only way of preventing Boris Johnson from proroguing Parliament – shutting it down – to govern in their absence and bring about a No Deal Brexit. 

My own journey to this possible election had its roots in my struggle as a Deaf person to fight for my rights as I struggled to achieve in a competitive career in the Hearing world.

It continued as I struggled to fight for my child’s education and that of other Deaf children.

In my life and work I am at the coal face of the effect that austerity has had on people’s lives. Deaf and Disabled people have died because of benefit and clinical commissioning group cuts and decisions. 

Standing for Parliament has always been a dream. I studied Theology and Politics at Bristol University. However, my career and parenthood diverted me. 

Last March, I went to test a BSL guide at Westminster and asked to see the suffragette, Emily Davidson’s, broom cupboard where she hid in Parliament to be registered as resident the night of the 1911 census.

A conversation in the broom cupboard changed my life. I realised that with only 1 per cent of self-declared Disabled MPs the voice of Deaf and Disabled people in Parliament was needed. They are one of the least represented minority groups in Parliament. If Deaf and Disabled people do not have a voice in Parliament they are ostracised from the democratic process. 

I left the broom cupboard and applied to be the Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Basingstoke, where there was an all-women short-list.

The current MP is the Rt Hon Maria Miller, a former Minister for Disabled People during Cameron’s coalition, Culture Secretary before her resignation in an expenses scandal, and current Chair of the Equalities Committee. It is almost a marginal with 9466 votes separating the Conservatives and Labour at the last election. 

The Labour Party and Basingstoke CLP provided me with interpreters for the selection process. I was stunned when I was selected as nobody expects to get selected first time. 

My campaign is growing daily. People seem to have an empathy with a parent of a SEN young person who has had enough and wants to take the fight into Westminster.

However, the biggest battle we face is to source funding for interpreters as well as the campaign. In the past the Access to Elected Office Fund supported Disabled Parliamentary Candidates with funding for access needs such as interpreting from pre-selection to election.

This fund was frozen by the Conservatives after the 2015 election, pending review. The review was published in May 2018, but the fund has still not been restored (read the Disability News Service article here) despite lobbying of the Equalities Office by parties and MPs. The current EnAble Fund is LGA money which only covers local council elections, not Parliamentary. 

Whilst I stand to fight an election with this substantial disadvantage, that has been the story of my life. It is a key reason why I have to stand and fight this treatment and marginalisation of Deaf and Disabled people by the Government. It feels like I’m starting a race up a mountain with the other racers over half way up but I will run faster with more determination.  

Details of my campaign can be found at:

https://www.kerenamarchantbasingstoke.com

https://www.facebook.com/kerena27/

Twitter @kerena27

Kerena Marchant is a television producer and journalist. She also works with parents of SEN children and Disabled people. She is the parent of a young person with SEN.