Comedian and Strictly Come Dancing winner will appeal for an end to discrimination against disabled people

This year’s alternative Christmas message on Channel 4 will be an impassioned appeal by the comedian Chris McCausland calling for an end to discrimination against disabled people.

Earlier in the month McCausland became the first blind person to win Strictly Come Dancing while being hailed as a saviour of the troubled programme, and will now give the alternative to monarch’s annual televised address, which was first initiated in 1993.