Neurodivergent Labour refutes Kemi Badenoch’s campaign pamphlet’s statement that autistic people have received “better treatment” and “economic privileges and protection”. Our lived experience is the opposite of this.
Badenoch asserts that adjustments in schools and workplaces have “created costs and failed to improve people’s mental health conditions”. Autism is a neurological variant, not a mental health condition. Both people experiencing mental ill-health and autistic people deserve support.
It is particularly hypocritical for the Tories, who chronically underfunded education and public services for 14 years, to accuse autistic people of draining resources.
It is not an “economic privilege” to be in the group that, by the government’s own statistics, has the lowest rate of employment of any disability group.
We are glad the Tories are out of office. Whoever becomes its leader, The Conservative party will never represent the interests of neurodivergent people.