AMBER RUDD’s replacement as work and pensions secretary will continue the Tories’ assault on some of society’s most vulnerable people, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) told the Star today.

Ms Rudd resigned the Tory whip and Boris Johnson’s Cabinet on Saturday night in protest at his handling of Brexit.

Her replacement was announced on Sunday as Therese Coffey.

The former environment minister has voted for the bedroom tax, against raising benefits at least in line with prices and against higher benefits for people unable to work due to illnesses and or disabilities.

DPAC co-founder Linda Burnip told the Star: “Therese Coffey is just the latest in a long line of nasty DWP ministers who have consistently voted to further impoverish disabled people.

“She has also suggested that pensioners should be forced to pay national insurance contributions to get their pension.

“Together with the idea that the retirement age should be raised to 75 put forward by Iain Duncan Smith’s think tank, her appointment very much suggests the Tories are now going to target our pensioners in spite of our state pensions already leaving many unable to heat their homes.”

Hastings and Rye MP Ms Rudd, who was forced to resign as Theresa May’s home secretary over the Windrush scandal that saw the government deport black British citizens, said she quit over the sacking of 21 Tory rebels last week.

She called the sackings an “assault on decency and democracy” and an “act of political vandalism.”

In her letter of resignation, the now independent MP said that she “no longer believed leaving with a deal is the government’s main objective.”

Ms Rudd has represented her constituency since 2010 and has one of the smallest majorities in the country, with only 346 votes separating her from her Labour rival in 2017.

Peter Chowney, Labour candidate for Hastings and Rye, said:
“I’m pleased that Amber Rudd has realised what many of us knew already: that the Tories are in utter disarray, and that Boris Johnson is not fit to be an MP, let alone Prime Minister.

“… I look forward to other prominent Conservatives, both nationally and locally, taking the same honourable route.”