Yesterday in a Parliamentary Committee Iain Duncan Smith MP said the following:

Mr Duncan Smith:
Quite the contrary; I have made it very clear that by 2016 universal credit will be the benefit that people go on when they apply for employment and support allowance. The people who were on it—we know them as the stock—are the most vulnerable. [Interruption.] Well, that is the term used—those are people who are on the benefit at present. [Interruption.] How pathetic is that? The Opposition used the term themselves when they were in government, and now they try to pretend that they have discovered a new way of referring to such people. Those who are on employment and support allowance will be migrated into universal credit over a period so that we can bring them in safely, securely and to their benefit. Would the hon. Lady want us to rush them in, or does she think we ought to take care over how we do it?

Claimants of ESA are all disabled people. Many disabled people are outraged at the use of the word 'stock' to describe us as this word suggests that we are animals, to be herded, or shop goods.

Of course, we are neither of the above. We are people. We are human beings.

Iain Duncan Smith is in a position of high political power. For someone in his professional position to describe us in this way is particularly unacceptable and hurtful.

We petition Iain Duncan Smith to make a public apology in the  House of Commons at the earliest opportunity.