After Hitchin and Harpenden MP Peter Lilley voted for a £30-per-week cut to disability benefits earlier this month, an online petition is calling for sexual health charity Herts Aid to remove him as a patron.
The petition, addressed to the charity’s board of trustees, was launched on Tuesday and had 140 signatures within 24 hours.
It asserts that the cut to ESA payments for people in the Work-Related Activity Group from £103 to £73 per week will affect Herts Aid clients, and thus ‘makes his position untenable’.
Mr Lilley responded: “This is clearly party political. I am proud to be associated with Herts Aid, which promotes awareness of the need to be tested for HIV/AIDS.
“To use a charity as a political football is another sad example of the increasing intolerance of the left in this country.”
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