Badenoch accused of ‘stigmatising’ autism and mental health issues in comments about aid – British Politics Live
Elon Musk was not excluded from the British investment summit, the minister says
Elon Musk would be welcome at future UK investment summits if and when he had investment programs that Britain could bid for. Peter Kylethe science secretary said. Peter Walker has the story.
And Graeme Wearden has full coverage of the investment summit on its business live blog.
Jenrick criticized for saying NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard should be sacked
As mentioned previously, Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch’s rival for the Tory leadership is also facing criticism over health comments. In an interview with the Sunday Times published yesterday, he called for the resignation of Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England. Jenrick said:
“It is particularly disappointing that Amanda Pritchard essentially denied to a select committee last year that the NHS has a problem with productivity,” he says. “(She) has presided over declining productivity and then denied there is a problem. Having spoken to many people in and around the NHS, I wonder if she is the best person Britain has to lead the NHS. It’s nothing personal against her. I know she is very professional. But I think it’s time for someone new, who understands that NHS productivity needs to improve.
In a message on social media last night Matthew Taylorhead of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals and other NHS trusts, said it was unfair of Jenrick to attack a civil servant who is not meant to answer back.
I have no stake in the Conservative leadership race and the Confed doesn’t always agree with @NHSEngland, but I think Robert Jenrick’s call for @AmandaPritchard to be sacked is regrettable. It is inappropriate and unfair, especially because as a civil servant she cannot respond.
Good morning. It’s a big day for the government, with Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves both speaking at the International Investment Summit, an event aimed at showcasing Labour’s commitment to reviving the economy and boosting growth. If Kiran Stacey As he reports in his overnight story, Starmer promises to cut red tape and “tear away the bureaucracy that blocks investment” – in language very similar to what his Conservative predecessors used to say when shepherding similar initiatives launched.
I’ll discuss some of what’s happening at the summit here, but Graeme Wearden will lead its coverage on his business live blog.
In other news, as ballots for the Tory leadership contest go to members this week, that contest is heating up. The bookmakers did that Kemi Badenoch as favourites, but their odds leave Robert Jenrick not far behind and no one is predicting the winner with any confidence. This morning Jenrick and Badenoch are both being criticized. Jenrick has come under fire for calling for the resignation of the head of NHS England and for attacking Labor over the Home Office’s migration center contracts when he was minister. But the row over Badenoch could be more serious as she has been criticized by a former Tory cabinet colleague for her comments about people with autism and anxiety problems.
At the Conservative conference, Badenoch’s team released a 36-page essay entitled Conservatism in crisis which identifies many factors that supposedly hold back growth. About anxiety and autism it says:
It is positive that our society is now more open when it comes to mental health. The socialization of mental health care, which has shifted mental health from something people worked on for their own benefit to something where everyone had to treat you differently, has both created costs and failed to improve people’s mental health outcomes.
(A change in perception of harm) helps explain why people who have experienced events once considered non-traumatic now feel entitled to support. This increases the demand for psychologists and therapists, who are needed to help people previously considered able to cope. As will be explained in the forthcoming book (based on the essay), numbers within the psychological and psychotherapeutic professions have increased from 102,000 in 200240 to 223,700 in 2023.
The diagnosis of neurodiversity was once considered useful because it meant you could understand your own brain and thus help you interact with the world. It was an individually focused change. But now it also offers economic benefits and protection. If you have a neurodiversity diagnosis (e.g. anxiety, autism), it is usually viewed as a disability, a category similar to race or biological sex in terms of discrimination laws and general attitudes.
As a child, you may be able to get better treatment or equipment at school, and even transportation to and from home. If you work, you are protected from day 1 in terms of employment conditions, you can more easily claim unfair dismissal and, under the disability rules, you can also demand that your employer make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to your job (and you can publish work). disability once you are employed, rather than before).
In short, while psychological and mental health were once seen as something people should work on as individuals, mental health has become something that society, schools and employers must adapt to.
If Eleanor Langford reports in a story for the iThese comments have been strongly criticized by Robert Buckland, a former Tory justice secretary who has an autistic daughter and who carried out an inquiry into employment for autistic people during the last government after leaving ministerial office. Buckland told the i that it was wrong for the Badenoch report to “stigmatize or lump together certain categories”. He added:
Anxiety is not a neurodiverse condition. Autism is not a mental illness.
That part of the report did not seem to me to be based on any evidence, and confusing autism with mental health is incorrect. It is not the right approach to do this.
A spokesperson for Badenoch said she only wrote the foreword for the report published at the Tory conference and that it was wrong to say it stigmatized people. The spokesperson said:
If we want to solve the problem of deteriorating mental health, we need to be able to point out that it is happening, how society has changed its approach to it, and determine whether that approach is working.
It would be wrong to infer any prejudice from this and it is essential that we can talk about these issues without the media deliberately misleading their readers for the sake of easy headlines.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: David Lammy, the Foreign Minister, is in Luxembourg to attend a meeting of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council.
10.05 am: Keir Starmer gives a speech at the government’s investment summit, before taking part in a question and answer session with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. At 4.20pm, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, will give a speech to conclude the summit. Our main coverage of the summit will be on Graeme Wearden’s business live blog, which can be found here.
11.30 am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2:30 PM: John Healey, the Defense Secretary, answers questions in the House of Commons.
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