The mind boggles :Esther McVey revealed as Samaritan's advisor.

Controversial Government Minister Esther McVey,  a pampered posh girl  who bummed around in her dads company before launching a less than sucessful television career, an individual disliked by many across Mersyside and the country because of  her controversial stint as Minister for Disabled people, and for being a key advocate in launching the hated ' Bedroom Tax', which resulted in many vulnerable people losing their homes, has been revealed to be an advisor to the charity The Samaritans. Between 2012 and 2013, as minister for disabled people and later employment minister McVey was famed for defending the indefensible saying it was "right " that people were having to use food banks and claiming that benefit sanctions "teach " jobseekers to take looking for work seriously, going  as far as comparing unemployed people to naughty schoolchildren being punished by a teacher, despite the death and destitition that sanctions have since caused.
This is more than mere soundbites. From giving misleading information about bedroom tax's impact on disabled people to her decision to close the Independent Living Fund, McVey appeared to relish removing disability support, with campaigners accusing her of distorting the facts  in order to help make that a reality.
.https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/mcvey-uses-misleading-dla-stats-to-stoke-up-antagonism/
Even worse, she was central in helping the rightwing press stoke up suspicion towards disabled people on benefits, most platantly as David Cameron's government began to abolish disability living allowance (DLA) and replace it with personal independence payments (PIP). long has McVey made it her mission to punish the most vulnerable in our society. That PIP is now wrongly withdrawing benefits from severely ill and disabled people, with 65% of decisions overturned on appeal
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/record-numbers-disabled-people-win-11171811
makes this all the more sickening.
The people of Wirral West though wisely rejected her in 2015, when whe was Minister for Work after her government failed to act on zero hours contracts, and after making life imeasurably harder for people with disabilities, and overseeing cuts to family income that will see see child poverty grow over 400,000 over the next few years.
In fact McVey has made so many decisions which have had appalling impacts on the most vulnerable in our society there's no room to list them all here, but a good summary can be found here from the Disability News Service ;  https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/backlash-over-terrible-insult-of-mcveys-dwp-appointment/ All this has made her one of the most despised of Tory MPs. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has described her as a "Stain on humanity".Petitions have been set up calling for her to be sacked. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sack-esther-mcvey
So it is truly shocking to hear that when asked on twitter the official Samaritan's twitter account revealed McVey to be a member of its advisory board.
https://twitter.com/samaritans/status/958042602292604928
The charity's website also shows her to be one of 12 members of the board
.https://www.samaritans.org/about-us/our-organisation/structure-and-governance/our-trustees/our-advisory-board
The Samaritans does some amazing work in very difficult circumstances, which have been made far worse by the decisions of the Tory government. So it  truly is not surprising, that news of McVey's role for the charity has been greeted with shock and anger by many, considering her past record in dealing with vulnerable people and bringing misery to millions of benefit claimants. One twitter user commented " So vulnerable people may telephone Samaritans helpline talking about ending their life due to DWP sanctions and you have the minister/Sec of State responsible for the sanctions on your board?! It would be the ultimate irony that peoples sucidal thoughts were driven by one of the Samaritan's own advisors.
It's time the Samaritans have a rethink, because allowing McVey to act as an advisor in this way is a terrible tnsult to every sick and disabled person across the land,  because her department and the government she represents are guilty of causing distress and emotional pain, because of the impact of welfare reforms that has impacted on thousands of disabled people and those of us in mental distress, If the Samaritans have any decency,  and want to maintain their repuation, they should dissassociate themselves from McVey immediately.