By stigmatising autism and mental illness, Kemi Badenoch does nothing to address the crisis left by Conservatism

James Downs, Mental Health Campaigner

As the campaign to become the next leader of the Conservative Party ramps up, so too it seems does the rhetoric.

Kemi Badenoch, the frontrunner to lead the opposition – and potentially become the next prime minister, has built her platform on a mixture of economic conservatism and culture war battles.

As a mentally ill, autistic person, Badenoch’s fire is now being turned on people like me, in a way that doesn’t just reveal a deep level of ignorance; it actively harms the very people she seeks to govern.

Problematic

In her Foreword to “Conservatism in Crisis”, Badenoch manages to achieve a unique blend of fundamental misunderstandings, stigmatising narratives and conceptual incompetence to reach misguided and unethical conclusions.

There are so many problems with what she has written that it is difficult to know where to start. For one, she fails to understand the difference between neurodiversity and neurodivergence.

She talks about being “diagnosed as neurodiverse” and gives examples of anxiety and autism, but anxiety is not a neurodivergent condition. neurodivergent can certainly cause anxiety and other mental health problems – but there is a distinction.

Nobody can be diagnosed as neurodiverse, as we are all neurodiverse; only some of us are neurodivergent.

Lack of understanding

If Kemi Badenoch was really seeking to offer a genuine understanding and solutions for neurodivergent and mentally ill people, perhaps she would listen to our experiences.

She would soon realise that being diagnosed with a neurodivergent condition doesn’t come with a suite of advantages.

I was diagnosed with autism and ADHD in my 30s, after struggling with severe mental illness for decades – in part because of a lack of understanding and misdiagnosis.

Having an explanation about why I have found it so difficult to function and take part in society has been helpful, and helped me to move from being too unwell to work to building a life I find easier and more rewarding.

But the idea that diagnosis will “confer advantages” is laughable for many of the millions of people in my position.

Magic wand

At best, a diagnosis might, if you are lucky, help to ameliorate some of the significant disadvantages that neurodivergent and mentally unwell people face in this society.

It doesn’t magic your problems away, with everyone around you bending over backwards to accommodate you, as Badenoch infers.

The support that neurodivergent and mentally unwell people can access will never make it as easy for us to take part and have the same opportunities as everyone else – especially after 14 years of Conservative rule, which has left mental health services on their knees and waiting times for assessments longer than ever before.

The idea that mental health is something individuals should “work on themselves” overlooks the structural barriers and lack of support that many people face.

This kind of rhetoric implies that needing help is a personal failing, fostering shame and preventing people from seeking the support they need.

I know firsthand the harm of such narratives.

When I thought I should find it within myself to get better rather than seek help, it only led to me becoming more unwell, eventually unable to work and forced to claim benefits to survive.

In my case, the very things Badenoch criticises—such as mental health spending in the NHS and reasonable adjustments in the workplace—are what enabled me to recover and contribute meaningfully to society.

It’s precisely because of these supports that I now pay more in taxes than I receive in benefits.

Badenoch’s refusal to recognize the importance of societal support for neurodivergent and mentally ill people, coupled with her focus on individual responsibility, ignores the real challenges we face and does nothing to address the crisis in mental health that has been exacerbated by years of Conservative policies.

Cause and effect

Mental health problems, disability and diagnosis are increasing for many real and valid reasons. They are not a product of self-indulgence, expecting other people to fix your problems, or wanting economic advantages and protections.

They are in part because the Conservative government has consistently failed to provide adequate mental healthcare, and has been insufficient in planning care that responds to the significant challenges of a rapidly changing society beset by economic pressures, climate crisis, pandemic, and so much more.

The expansion of the ‘bureaucratic class’ that Kemi Badenoch attacks – who often pick up the pieces where there people have had little support or treatment – might not be needed if a sufficient mental health and social care workforce was there in the first place.

The backwards model of healthcare which doesn’t prioritise preventing people becoming unwell and economically inactive in the first place is the responsibility of the political class.

Perhaps Badenoch would say that I am an example of someone who “cannot cope with microaggressions”, or that people who share concerns about her comments are part of “a victimhood and complaint culture”.

She might think people who advocate for investment in mental health services and a more inclusive society are offering “simplistic knee-jerk answers” based on the needs of self-appointed victims.

Yet her writing in Conservatism in Crisis offers no answers or constructive ideas on such vitally important aspects of public health.

Rather than focusing on the crisis that has beset Conservatism, the first duty of public service is to think about the people and their needs.

Instead, Badenoch has managed to deflect from her duty to vulnerable people with that particular Tory brand of navel-gazing and scapegoating she does so well.

This does nothing to address the real task of the next leader of her party – not to fix the crisis in Conservatism, but to tackle the crisis left by it.

James Downs is a mental health campaigner, researcher, psychological therapist and expert by experience in eating disorders. He lives in Cardiff and can be contacted at @jamesldowns on X and Instagram, or via his website: jamesdowns.co.uk