PEOPLE with disabilities can live independent lives if society changes its attitudes, Cumnock’s MP has claimed.

More should be done by the UK Government to remove all limitations that restrict life choices of people with disabilities.

MP Corri Wilson raised the issue during a Parliamentary debate on publicly accessible amenities for disabled people.

She has urged the government to remove the numerous barriers that disabled people encounter in their daily lives.

Ms Wilson also highlighted the difficulties facing people with invisible disabilities – such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Crohn’s disease – and welcomed the idea of a national roll-out of the Can’t Wait card which allows sufferers to use bathrooms in businesses and commercial premises.

Speaking during the debate, she said: “Disability is caused by the way society is organised – rather than by a person’s impairment. It is hugely important that we look at ways of removing barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people. When barriers are removed, disabled people can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives.”

A recent United Nations study was critical of Westminster’s benefit cuts — meanwhile Scotland is pressing ahead with plans to transform the lives of disabled people.

“It is extremely disappointing to see UK Government policy be so utterly condemned by the United Nation’s Disabled Committee inquiry.

“What the findings of the UN report illustrated starkly is that the Government is undermining the rights of disabled people by imposing its obsession with austerity and social security cuts on some of the most disadvantaged people in our society.

“Now we face a further hurdle to equality for disabled people. A hard Brexit, which this Government appears intent on dragging us all through, poses a real threat to the rights of disabled people.

“This Government needs to ensure the rights and protections in place for disabled people are not diluted as a result of us leaving the EU,” Ms Wilson added.