A Scottish MP who returned to the Commons against doctor’s orders has used her first appearance in the chamber to demand better support for stroke patients.
Amy Callaghan MP, who suffered a brain haemorrhage, returned to the on Monday for the first time in almost two years and immediately made for the green benches for questions on benefit rules.
The East Dunbartonshire MP drew on her own experience to call on Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey to increase Universal Credit for stroke survivors which she described as “woeful”.
The SNP spent four months in hospital and underwent two life-saving surgeries after collapsing at home in June 2020, aged 28.
On Monday she told the Commons: “In July 2020, I met my constituent Stacey, not at a constituency surgery but at the PDRU at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
“We recovered from our strokes alongside each other and I got to hear her story.
“Too many people like Stacey have survived catastrophic life events only to be let down by this Government’s woeful welfare system, unable to work and unable to pay for basic necessities many of us take for granted.
“Will she (Therese Coffey) commit to revisiting the current levels of Universal Credit so that stroke survivors like Stacey can truly live their lives instead of barely getting by?”
The Work and Pensions Secretary replied: “I do know that generally we are trying to make sure… that this is the right approach in order to try and make sure that people have that access to work.”
Callaghan told the Daily Record her return to work was “definitely against doctor’s orders” and called for the House of Commons to reform its procedures to allow for proxy voting.
She said: “Westminster should have adapted to people with my kind of condition, so I could still represent my constituents.
“It should never have reached this point. It’s definitely against doctor’s orders. If this was a constituent travelling to London, I would be telling them not to go.
“If I could do my job from home, and still represent my constituents, I would – but I can’t just now.”
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