Kemi Badenoch, MP and Conservative Party leader hopeful, has been criticised by the National Autistic Society for ‘offensive’ and ‘detached from reality’ comments on autism.
In a report called ‘Conservatism in Crisis’ published last month, Kemi Badenoch says that 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. But now it also offers economic advantages and protections.
She said that if you have a neurodiversity diagnosis (e.g. anxiety, autism), then that is usually seen as a disability, a category similar to race or biological sex in terms of discrimination law and general attitudes.
“If you are a child, you may well get better treatment or equipment at school – even transport to and from home,” she added in the report. “If you are in the workforce, you are protected in employment terms from day 1, you can more easily claim for unfair dismissal, and under disability rules you can also require your employer makes ‘reasonable adjustments’ to your job (and you can reveal your disability once you have been employed rather than before).”
The National Autistic Society said that the statements were not only offensive to autistic people but detached from reality and demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of autism and disability.
It added that it was greatly concerning that in 2024, elected politicians still don’t understand that autism is not a mental health condition and to say that ‘anxiety’ is a neurodivergent condition, is completely incorrect.
Mel Merritt, Head of Policy and Campaigns from the National Autistic Society, said: “Politicians need to stop looking to the autistic community as a political football and instead recognise the difficulties and challenges that so many autistic people face in their daily lives. They need to engage in good faith to make a positive impact rather than dismissing their needs.
“Autistic people and their families face huge delays and long fights to get support across all aspects of their lives, including diagnosis, health, education and social care. Being autistic doesn’t offer economic advantages and protections, only three in 10 autistic people are in any form of employment, the lowest of any disability. Reasonable adjustments are in no way an immediate pathway into economic privilege, but a legal right to make sure autistic people can participate in work, education and live a dignified life.
“To say children with a diagnosis of a neurodivergent condition, like autism, ‘may well get better treatment or equipment at school’ and ‘even transport to school’ is to misinterpret legal protections and adjustments that give young people access to the education they need and should be entitled to. Parents of autistic children have to fight too hard and too long for support; often having to pay for expensive legal battles, that overwhelming find in favour of families.”
