UK Politics

Conservative leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch has faced criticism after a report she endorsed suggested people with autism get “economic advantages and protections” and “better treatment or equipment at school”.

The pamphlet, which Badenoch had launched at a campaign event, covers ways the Conservative Party can get “back on track” and includes contributions from 24 of her supporters.

It claims that “the socialisation of mental health so everyone has to treat you differently has failed to improve people’s mental health outcomes” and that this has “created costs and failed to improve people’s mental health”.

The section specifically references autism and anxiety as two examples of this, stating that people diagnosed with either of them get “economic advantages and protections” not afforded to their peers.

“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,” it states.
[…]
Former Conservative justice secretary Robert Buckland, who published the Buckland review earlier this year into employment rates among autistic people, said the section appeared “muddled”.

He added that the report shouldn’t be “stigmatising or lumping certain categories in with each other”, adding: “Anxiety is not a neurodiverse condition… autism is not a mental health condition.”
[…]
Before the election, former education secretary Gillian Keegan admitted that special needs support in schools – which can be accessed by autistic children – was in “crisis” with many parents having to “fight to get the right support”.