LONDON: Prime Minister John Major was facing growing pressure yesterday to sack his Minister for Disabled People, Nicholas Scott, with Labour saying they would keep up demands for his dismissal. Mr Scott is under fire after admitting he misled the Commons by denying that his department had anything to do with the wrecking of a bill to outlaw discrimination against people with disabilities last week. It was killed by 80 Conservative amendments, some of which had been drawn up by the minister's department. Labour leader John Smith has written to the Prime Minister about the matter and said the campaign against the bill, which the Government claimed was too expensive and poorly drafted, was an abuse of government power. ''The fundamental issue is not whether Mr Scott is good or bad as a minister overall. It is what happened on this occasion,'' he said. ''What we know happened on this occasion, and there can be no doubt about this, is that the machinery of the state - the civil service - was used to help Conservative backbenchers frustrate an all-party attempt to help the disabled.'' He claims speaker Betty Boothroyd has already given him an undertaking that she will examine Mr Scott's conduct to see whether he was in contempt of the House. The demands for Mr Scott to go add to the pressure on Mr Major, who has already lost one member of his Government this week. Michael Brown, a junior whip, quit on Saturday amid claims of a homosexual relationship. Joining the criticism yesterday was the minister's daughter, Victoria Scott, co-ordinator of a pressure group for people with disabilities called Rights Now. ''We have a very good personal relationship but we do disagree very very strongly on this issue,'' she said of her father. ''I see civil rights for disabled people as a fundamental rights issue facing this country and the minister obviously as part of the Government does not feel able to agree with me on this.'' The Social Security Secretary, Peter Lilley, who is Mr Scott's senior minister, said there was no need for him to resign because he had immediately informed MPs when he realised he had misled them. He said Mr Scott had apologised and that should be accepted as the end of the matter.
