My mum had a series of Motability cars over the years when I was growing up in Liverpool in the 1980s and 1990s. All were bottom-of-the-range Ford Escorts, all were blue, and all were driven by my dad so she could get out and about as a mother, homemaker and wheelchair-user with multiple sclerosis.

For us, a car was a necessity, not a luxury. Back then, almost all public transport was inaccessible. Once, I remember being stranded with her in the city centre, waiting in a taxi queue and having driver after driver refuse to take us on the demonstrably false basis that her chair wouldn’t fit into the cab.

Motability felt like a blessing. First introduced in 1977, it has, over the years, done the same for four million people who receive certain higher-level disability benefits and can use some of the money to lease a car through this government-backed scheme.

open image in gallery Motability points out that it is continually refining the way it runs its scheme to protect against misuse ( Getty/iStockphoto )

Yet of late, it has become the subject of controversy and political debate, with suggestions being tabled by think tanks that its funding could be better spent on other projects. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed that Motability is being exploited by people who aren’t really disabled and pledged to “restrict Motability vehicles to people with serious disabilities”, telling the party’s conference this month: “Those