Badenoch’s ‘sinister’ comments on mental health and autism raise fears about future Tory disability policies

Disabled people have reacted with alarm to “stigmatising”, “damaging” and “inaccurate” comments about mental health and autism by Kemi Badenoch, the right-wing Conservative MP who could soon be the next leader of her party.

The comments were made in a pamphlet (PDF) published on the Renewal 2030 website, which Badenoch is using to spearhead her leadership campaign.

Although Badenoch is not credited as the author of the Conservatism in Crisis paper, she wrote its introduction and is certain to have played a major part in drafting the document.

There will be fears that, if she wins the leadership contest, these beliefs will provide the backbone to Conservative policies for years to come, while also potentially dragging the Labour government to the right.

But it appears likely that policies under Robert Jenrick, her opponent in the leadership run-off, will be similarly hostile to disabled people.

He gave a speech yesterday (Wednesday) in which he spoke about “misuse” of disability benefits, and claimed the country was “medicalising normal human stress, signing off as incapable those for whom work could be a valuable source of support and self-esteem”, and said he would cut £12 billion from spending on working-age benefits.

In the Conservatism in Crisis paper, Badenoch and her colleagues criticise the “constant focus” on supporting “the ‘marginalised’, the ‘oppressed’, ‘victims’ and ‘the vulnerable’” and “group identities” such as “the disabled or neuro-diverse”.

They write: “Being diagnosed as neuro-diverse was once seen as helpful as it meant you could understand your own brain, and so help you to deal with the world.

“It was an individual focused change. But now it also offers economic advantages and protections.”

They also claim that an autism diagnosis provides protection from workplace discrimination, free transport to school, and generous benefits.

They add: “In short, whereas once psychological and mental health was seen as something that people should work on themselves as individuals, mental health has become something that society, schools and employers have to adapt around.”

Badenoch and her colleagues also claim that “the rise in welfare claims related to mental health, in the UK at least, has outpaced any conceivable clinical explanation”.

They conclude that a class of super-powerful bureaucrats have plotted to replace the free market with an endless assault on “unfair oppressive structures”, in an attempt to support groups such as “those with fragile mental health”.

This, they say, is “gumming up capitalism”.

Dr James Cusack, chief executive of the autism research organisation Autistica, who is himself autistic, said Badenoch’s comments were “unhelpful and stigmatising” and “part of a damaging and, unfortunately, growing trend where people attempt to use issues like autism and neurodiversity to gain political capital by making overly simplistic and ignorant assumptions”.

He said: “Not only has Badenoch completely misapplied the terminology around neurodiversity, these arguments don’t reflect the nuanced situation that we currently face, nor do they reflect the growing injustices that autistic people face.”

Amy Wells, senior communications and membership manager for National Survivor User Network, a user-led network of groups and people with experience of mental ill-health, distress, and trauma, said the “disgraceful” comments displayed a “cold and ruthless attitude towards disabled people”.

She said: “We all knew this hostility existed, but here it may as well be stated outright that we are a burden, that we are not deserving of the (meagre and barrier-ridden) support that is on offer, and that ‘society, schools, and employers’ should not have to ‘adapt’ to our needs.”

Wells said the comments were “rooted in a complete misunderstanding of neurodivergence and mental ill-health, distress, and trauma”.

She added: “The idea that receiving a diagnosis related to mental ill-health or neurodivergence offers ‘economic advantages and protections’ would be laughable if it wasn’t so sinister.

“It is so obvious, given disabled people’s extensive accounts of the punitive and totally inadequate social security system, or their experiences of discrimination in settings such as the workplace, that this is far from the truth.”

Dr Jay Watts, a disabled activist and writer, and a consultant clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, said it was “hard not to overstate how fast and loose Kemi Badenoch plays with ‘facts’ in Conservatism in Crisis”.

In reality, said Watts, discrimination law has been developing for half a century, and disabled people have “always sought help” to “escape unbearable lives and avoid burdening loved ones”.

She said: “Badenoch implies that we – disabled folk peculiarly lumped together as neurodivergent, whether we have anxiety or are autistic – have only recently prioritized social support over individual resilience.

“But this notion ignores the long-established social model of disability.”

She said society had, in fact, “become more individualized, with less social infrastructure”.

She said: “Without proper support, we become more disabled, with growing neurodivergence awareness simply allowing us to articulate this more clearly.

“She claims we’ve abandoned resilience for social support, but the truth is the reverse: neoliberal individualism has stripped away our safety nets, leaving people isolated and vulnerable.”

Dr Hannah Belcher, an autistic lecturer on user-led research at King’s College London, who focuses on autism in her work, told Badenoch on Twitter that her comments “belittle the struggles of autistic people, implying we have adopted some identity to gain advantages above others”.

She said Badenoch’s claim that a diagnosis provides autistic people with an advantage at school and work was “completely inaccurate” and that such misinformation “perpetuates the stigma autistic people face on a daily basis”.

Belcher, author of Taking Off the Mask, said most autistic people cannot work because most workplaces do not make the adjustments they need, and even when adjustments are made, they do not provide an advantage, but “merely create a slightly less hostile working environment”.

Many others are too scared to disclose their autism diagnosis at work, with many driven out of work by bullying and harassment, while autistic people are “at a greater risk of mental health issues, being hospitalised, and death by suicide”, she said.

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