Disabled ‘not worth full pay’

British welfare reform minister Lord Freud has issued a "full and unreserved apology" after suggesting that some disabled people were "not worth" the minimum wage, but stopped short of resigning.

The Conservative peer said he had been “foolish” in “accepting the premise” of a question posed to him during a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference last month.

UK prime minister David Cameron flatly denied Freud’s remarks.

In the recording, Conservative councillor David Scott expresses concern that some “mentally-damaged individuals” who want to work were unable to do so because employers were unwilling to pay them the minimum wage. Freud replied: “There is a group — and I know exactly who you mean — where actually, as you say, they’re not worth the full wage.”