DISABLED workers have been condemned to the misery of the dole, the Government was warned last night – after the closure of four North-East factories was confirmed.

Remploy sites in Spennymoor, County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle and Ashington, Northumberland, will be axed – with the loss of 135 jobs – after rescue bids failed. They will close by the end of the year.

Ministers insisted that Remploy’s £320m budget would be protected and spent more effectively to allow thousands more disabled people to find work.

But the announcement was greeted with shouts of “shame” in the Commons, where ministers were accused of abandoning disabled workers who had “given a lifetime of service to Remploy”.

It was condemned by Pat Glass, Labour MP for North West Durham, who said the Spennymoor factory employed many disabled people from the Crook area, in her constituency.

She said: “Are they seriously telling me that seriously disabled people – three members of the same family, in one case – are going to find alternative employment in a constituency where unemployment has more than doubled since the Government came to power?”

Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman said: “The Government does not seem able to listen and their picture of the opportunities and possibilities for people with disabilities are quite unrealistic.”

Remploy worker Ken Stubbs, the GMB Union’s North-East branch secretary, who has worked at the Spennymoor factory since 1978, said: “It is hard enough for anyone to get a job at the moment due to the poor state of the employment market. It will be even harder for someone with a disability. The workers know they don’t have much of a future outside Remploy but they have a future and a position in the factory.”

Planned strikes will go ahead on July 19 and 26.

Maria Miller, the work and pensions minister, insisted there were opportunities for disabled workers, even during an economic slump, saying: “The jobs are there – if people get the right support.”

The closures will cost 135 jobs at Spennymoor (41), Newcastle (55), Gateshead (11) and Ashington (28) – but Sunderland’s factory (35 workers) is unaffected, for now.

In total, 27 factories will shut – out of 36 earmarked for closure in March – with a possible lifeline thrown to the remaining nine. Those nine had come up with viable business plans. Bids by private companies, community groups – or factory buy-outs – will now be studied.