Starmer’s ailing government is happy to pursue ideas like cutting Motability, but all ministers will do is damage lives and themselves

Months before the government used the budget to launch plans to tackle Motability – the scheme that leases subsidised vehicles with some disability benefits – a website started quietly spying on disabled drivers. Motability Check – run by an unknown third party and now offline – allowed members of the public to type in any number plate and ( largely incorrectly ) see if it was a car provided by the firm. The purpose appeared simple and disturbing: spot that neighbour who says they have a bad back and check with a few clicks if they are milking the taxpayer.

From the spring, the idea that Motability was offering disabled people “free” BMWs and Mercedes began to spread. While the rightwing press suggested someone could get a vehicle for “bed wetting” and acne , blue tick accounts on X gleefully argued the only car available to claimants should be cheap, ugly and “have MOTABILITY written on it, preferably in neon”. By October, the narrative had gone mainstream as the supposed scam of free cars was leapt on by the Conservatives and Reform UK .

Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist