Ben Fletcher is Green candidate despite closure of Access to Elected Office Fund

Ben Fletcher

According to the Green Party, their candidate for the Putney seat in the forthcoming General Election is the first Deafblind person ever to stand for Parliament in the UK.

They are highlighting Ben Fletcher's condition on the first day of Deaf Awareness Week 2017.

36-year-old Mr Fletcher, says he decided to stand for Parliament despite the closure of the Access to Elected Office Fund by the Conservative government after the last General Election in May 2015. The fund, which provided financial support to disabled candidates standing for political office, has never been reopened, despite a recommendation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in September 2015.

He lives in Southfields with his partner Lauren, was born profoundly Deaf and partially sighted and first language is British Sign Language (BSL).

He said, “Disabled people are desperately under-represented in public life in Britain. At a time of deep disillusionment with politics in the UK, it is really important for the MPs elected in 2017 to reflect the diversity of the people they are meant to represent. There are over 11 million disabled people in Britain. That’s one in six. And yet many of us are still prevented from participating fully in education, in employment, and in politics because of inflexible, outdated attitudes, needless barriers to access and a general lack of understanding about what disabled people can really achieve if they receive the support they require".

Mr Fletcher works as Lead Developer for FT.com at the Financial Times. He says he is a campaigner for equality, human and animal rights, protection of the environment and a fairer and more democratic electoral system.

In 1987, his mother wrote a book, “Language for Ben”, about hiss childhood experiences as a Deaf child in mainstream education. In the book, which was later made into a film, she described her battle with the local education authorities to provide her son with a teaching assistant who could communicate with him using BSL. 30 years later, Mr Fletcher says deaf children in the UK are still routinely denied the right to access education in their first language.

Final list of candidates standing for election in Putney

May 15, 2017