{"id":124162,"date":"2014-06-13T13:25:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T13:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=124162"},"modified":"2014-06-13T13:26:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T13:26:31","slug":"tory-welsh-secretary-refuses-apologise-calling-disabled-bedroom-tax-victim-liar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/tory-welsh-secretary-refuses-apologise-calling-disabled-bedroom-tax-victim-liar\/","title":{"rendered":"Tory Welsh Secretary refuses to apologise for calling disabled bedroom tax victim a liar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke James<\/em><\/p>\n

Tory Minister David Jones refused to apologise yesterday for accusing a disabled bedroom tax victim of \u201clying\u201d in a face-to-face meeting about the cruel benefit cut.<\/p>\n

The Wales Secretary brushed off army veteran Chris Caruana\u2019s plight as a party-political stunt in a meeting at the Welsh Assembly on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Mr Jones shut down Mr Caruana\u2019s appeal, asking if he was campaigning to end the cruel Tory policy because he is a member of the Labour Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I said I wasn\u2019t a member, he said: \u2018I think you are\u2019,\u201d Mr Caruana told the Star.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been a member of the Labour Party or any other party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just a disabled ex-serviceman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outraged Mr Caruana, who left the army after being shot in the chest, added: \u201cI worked for nearly 30 years after I came out of the services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only when my chest injury caught up on me then I had to give up my work.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then my health has gone downhill. To speak to someone like that is out of order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Caruana\u2019s call for a personal apology from the Tory minister was snubbed by Mr Jones \u2013 whose father was an army officer.<\/p>\n

The Wales Office refused to make a comment when the Morning Star contacted it to ask whether Mr Jones would apologise.<\/p>\n

Neither did the Clwyd West MP deny launching the extraordinary attack on the disabled man at the meeting during his visit to Cardiff Bay.<\/p>\n

Labour Assembly Member Mick Antoniw had challenged him to meet tenants affected by the bedroom tax, who were watching a debate on the Queen\u2019s Speech from the public gallery.<\/p>\n

He told how Mr Caruana is robbed of \u00a314 a week because he refuses to move out of his specially adapted home, which is close to his two daughters who help care for him.<\/p>\n

The rattled Tory MP agreed to the meeting but cut it short \u2013 refusing to listen to tenants whose lives have been wrecked by the bedroom tax.<\/p>\n

Mr Antoniw said Mr Jones had demanded to know how the war pensioner would solve Britain\u2019s financial crisis before asking: \u201cAre you a member of the Labour Party?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said No. So David Jones asked: \u201cDo you vote Labour?\u2019 He basically accused him of lying. The guy was so offended he just walked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Caruana, who takes pills to help with stress, said: \u201cI try and keep my stress levels under control but with him I couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf ever I wanted to become a political activist it\u2019s now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welsh bedroom tax campaigner Jamie Insole has been helping Mr Caruana appeal his cut.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cInsulting and then refusing to apologise to this mild-mannered war veteran really takes the biscuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Via Morning Star<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke James Tory Minister David Jones refused to apologise yesterday for accusing a disabled bedroom tax victim of \u201clying\u201d in a face-to-face meeting about the cruel benefit cut. The Wales Secretary brushed off army veteran Chris Caruana\u2019s plight as a party-political stunt in a meeting at the Welsh Assembly on Wednesday. Mr Jones shut down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,1615],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-124162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news","7":"category-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}