Coronation Street star Cherylee Houston: 'Disabled people have been killed by government's Covid failure'
26.09.2022 - 09:49
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Coronation Street's first disabled actor has said disabled people were killed by the government’s Covid failure. Speaking at a Labour Party Conference fringe event Cherylee Houston wept as she said 'we’re not seen as human', adding: “It makes me want to cry every time”.
Cherylee, 48, who has played Izzy Armstrong on the ITV soap for 12 years, blasted Tory ministers for failing to provide a British Sign Language interpreter at daily press conferences. That is despite six in 10 people who died with the virus being disabled.
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“People were dying because of that lack of information,” she told the Mirror’s Disabled Britain: Doing it for Ourselves fringe event at Labour conference. “It was just outrageous that people were being left to die.”
Shadow Minister for Disabled People Vicky Foxcroft said she had asked “numerous” times for BSL at daily briefings in 2020. “It’s not rocket science - you’d get things right if you just went and did it,” the Labour MP said.
BSL was provided by the BBC but not in the £2.6m No10 briefing room. A group of 276 deaf people took the government to court over the policy on Friday.
Cherylee has used a wheelchair since she was 23 due to the rare tissue disorder, Ehlers Danlos Type III hypermobility type. She has featured in The Bill, Holby City, Emmerdale and the cult comedy series Little Britain.
She said: “When Covid happened and the nation was addressed, there were no sign language interpreters, there was no easy read. So immediately, members of our community weren’t told this information and people were dying because of that lack of information.”
She added: “It was just