Graeme Ellis: life-long Tory voter 'quits party' and sabotages website over 'appalling' disability cuts

'This website is temporarily closed owing to Disability Cuts'

Disabled protestors demonstrate past the Houses of Parliament, in central London (Getty)

A disability campaigner and life-long Conservative has quit in style by sabotaging his own party’s website in retaliation to George Osborne’s cuts to disability payments, according to reports.

The website of the Conservative Disability Group, which is associated with the main party, went down on Wednesday shortly after the Chancellor gave his Budget speech in the Commons – confirming the anticipated cuts to disability payments.

“This website is temporarily closed owing to Disability Cuts,” a message on the group’s now-defunct website read.

It added: “The domain name will be transferred when the group secure new hosting. The owner of the hosting package Graeme Ellis has resigned over disability cuts from the group and will no longer develop or host this site.”

Wheelchair-bound Mr Ellis, who has voted for the Conservative Party for nearly 50 years, according to the Mirror, dramatically cut ties with the party after Mr Osborne’s cuts to disability payments, which he said are “destroying lives”.

A recent Labour analysis revealed that cuts to disability payments will see 200,000 disabled people lose almost £3,000 a year each – following the cuts to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) of those in the work-related activity group and slashes to Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

The 66-year-old told the Mirror: “I would like to say to him [Mr Osborne] - does he realise how he's destroying lives?

A screenshot of the Conservative Disability Group's website

He added: "I've had distraught clients on the phone today. I've had people in tears worrying about the future. How can I morally represent clients when I remain in an organisation that's doing these cuts?

"I'm just an ordinary citizen but I feel as though I want to lead a campaign over this. I'm a disabled person and I'm involved in politics. I decided being a disabled person comes first.

"I changed the website this afternoon. I'm appalled by what's happened and wanted to make a very public statement. I've been a Conservative voter since I could vote. But as a lifelong Conservative I could no longer agree with what the government's doing.

A spokesperson for the Conservative Party said to The Independent: “The Conservative Disability Group has not deactivated its website. The owner of the domain, who is no longer a member of the Group, has deactivated it without any instruction to do so.”