Lord Freud has said disabled people should earn £2 per hour, rather than the current minimum wage of £6.50.
Lord Freud, the architect of the bedroom tax and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions offered "a full and unreserved apology" after saying - during a meeting at the Conservative conference last month -
"You make a really good point about the disabled. There is a group where actually as you say they are not worth the full minimum wage."
This was revealed at Prime Minister's Questions today by the leader of the opposition Ed Miliband.
Lord Freud apparently suggested that there should be a separate minimum wage band for disabled people: £2 rather than £6.50.
People with disabilities are not exactly Lord Freud's target voters. 66% of households affected by his bedroom tax have a disabled resident.
But Lord Freud is not alone in holding these beliefs.
The Conservative think-tank Adam Smith Institute released a statement today in support of Lord Freud:
His point was that the market value of some people’s wages is below the minimum wage. This is often true of the severely disabled and can have appalling consequences for their self-esteem and quality of life.
Despite being a Tory, Lord Freud was also the architect of Labour's so-called "welfare reforms" which included the abolition of Incapacity Benefit and phasing out of Pension Credit for those over 60 years old.
