Welfare Reform minister Freud apologises after suggesting some disabled people 'not worth minimum wage'

"I would like to offer a full and unreserved apology," he said in a statement. "I was foolish to accept the premise of the question. To be clear, all disabled people should be paid at least the minimum wage, without exception, and I accept that it is offensive to suggest anything else.

"I care passionately about disabled people. I am proud to have played a full part in a Government that is fully committed to helping disabled people overcome the many barriers they face in finding employment."

He added: "I am profoundly sorry for any offence I have caused to any disabled people.

David Cameron flatly disowned Lord Freud's remarks when ambushed by Labour leader Ed Miliband at Prime Minister's Questions - and the peer's position has also been called into doubt by a series of Tory MPs.

In the recording, Conservative councillor David Scott, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, expresses concern that some "mentally damaged individuals" who want to work are unable to do so because employers were unwilling to pay them the minimum wage.

Lord Freud replied: "You make a really good point about the disabled. Now I had not thought through, and we have not got a system for, you know, kind of going below the minimum wage.

"There is a group - and I know exactly who you mean - where actually, as you say, they're not worth the full wage and actually I'm going to go and think about that particular issue, whether there is something we can do nationally, and without distorting the whole thing, which actually if someone wants to work for £2 an hour, and it's working can we actually..."

Downing Street confirmed that the Government's policy was that there should be no exceptions to the right to the national minimum wage.

And Mr Cameron told MPs it was "absolutely not" his view that disabled people may not be worth the full rate.

The PM said: "Of course disabled people should be paid the minimum wage and the minimum wage under this Government is going up and going up in real terms.

"It's now at £6.50. We will be presenting our evidence to the Low Pay Commission, calling for another real-terms increase in the minimum wage."

Mr Cameron - whose late son Ivan suffered from a rare genetic condition - insisted that he would not "take lectures" from Labour about looking after disabled people.

But Mr Miliband told him: "Surely someone holding those views can't possibly stay in your Government?"

Employment minister Esther McVey ramped up the pressure on Lord Freud by warning that the comments will "haunt him".

"Those words will haunt him. I cannot justify those words, they were wrong," she told BBC2's Daily Politics. "We have the minimum wage, everybody has the minimum wage, we have done a lot to support people with disability."

She added: "He was thinking out loud, he will have to explain himself, but as a member of that team, and a Government minister, minimum wage for all and we must support disabled people."

Tory MP Mark Garnier told LBC radio: "Personally, I don't find that acceptable."

Asked if Lord Freud should be sacked, Mr Garnier said: "It's up to David Cameron to sack him."

He added: "As a fundamental point, I don't think it's acceptable. If I were in David Cameron's position and there was a minister who came up and said something that was proclaiming that there were two different classes of people because of their disability or otherwise, then I would find that completely unacceptable.

"And if that was the case then I would sack that person."

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: "The views expressed by Lord Freud are completely unacceptable. The Liberal Democrats are proud to have raised the minimum wage repeatedly in Government and will resist any attempt to cut it for anybody, not least the disabled."

On the issue of whether Lord Freud should quit, the spokesman said: "Conservative ministerial appointments are a matter for the Prime Minister."

The comments by Lord Freud - made on September 30 - drew an angry response from charities and unions.

Richard Kramer, deputy chief executive at deafblind charity Sense, said: "The Government needs to be focusing on how to help more disabled people into work, not making offensive remarks about slashing their salaries. Lord Freud needs to explain his comments as a matter of urgency as these comments are far from befitting of his role as Welfare Minister."

Clare Pelham, chief executive of Leonard Cheshire Disability, said: "Suggesting that some people should be paid at below the minimum wage - the level that society has decided is the very minimum that anyone should expect - is deeply saddening and ill-informed."

Dan Scorer, head of policy at Mencap, told BBC Radio 4's World At One that he was "shocked" by Lord Freud's comments: "We fundamentally disagree with what he is proposing, which is that disabled people should be paid less than other workers, less than the minimum wage, because they have a disability.

"The whole point of the minimum wage is that it sets a minimum amount that people can be paid, a value for work, and Lord Freud seems to be saying that the work that disabled people do has less value than the rest of the population.

"I think he needs to very seriously consider his position after making these comments."

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Wherever they work and whoever they work for, disabled people are entitled to equal pay.

"Instead of opening the door to pay discrimination and extreme poverty, the Government should recognise that disabled people need a pay rise just like the rest of Britain."

Challenging Mr Cameron in the Commons, Mr Miliband jibed that the "nasty party is back".

"In the dog days of this Government, the Conservative Party is going back to its worst instincts - unfunded tax cuts, hitting the poorest hardest, now undermining the minimum wage," he said.

"The nasty party is back."

After the statement from Lord Freud, a Labour Party spokesman said: "This attempt at an apology is not the end of the matter. Lord Freud claims he merely accepted 'the premise of the question' but it was he who said some disabled people are 'not worth the full wage' and it was he who suggested paying people just £2 an hour. In fact he said he would go away to look at this issue, suggesting that this Government would consider it.

"Someone holding these views shouldn't be in government...

"If David Cameron continues to keep Lord Freud in his Government we will have yet more proof of how he stands for just a privileged few at the top."

But Lord Freud did receive some support from Defence Minister Anna Soubry, who expressed concern that his words may have been taken out of context, describing him as "one of the kindest and most compassionate of people".

"It is a real problem we have now in British politics where people take something, often out of context, spin it around, stick it in the internet on social media, and suddenly there is a flurry ... I'm not going to play that game," she told World At One.

Labour backbencher John Mann said: "It's insulting that Lord Freud hasn't resigned and that David Cameron hasn't had the decency to sack him. The Prime Minister needs to show some bottle and sack this former banker.

"Lord Freud has offered a dog's breakfast of an apology and he is quickly becoming the unacceptable face of the Coalition. If he remains in his post, given his horrific comments, the Liberal Democrats would have to leave the Coalition."