“The views put forward in this pamphlet on mental health are outdated, ill-informed and stigmatising."
Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch, has once more made the headlines for all the wrong reasons, after being accused of endorsing “disgraceful” and “wrong” claims about mental health.
Badenoch, who has previously claimed during the Tory leadership race that ‘maternity pay is excessive’ and that the minimum wage was burdensome for businesses, is now being criticised for endorsing and launching a pamphlet that said the number of claims for mental health problems in Britain has “outpaced any conceivable clinical explanation”.
Within the pamphlet, which contains contributions from Badenoch supporters, is contained the claim that ‘the rise in welfare claims related to mental health, in the UK at least, has outpaced any conceivable clinical explanation’.
The claims have been condemned, with Alexa Knight, director of England at the Mental Health Foundation charity, telling the Independent: “The pamphlet’s statement that there is no conceivable explanation for the growth of people out of work experiencing mental health problems is wrong.”
She added: “The views put forward in this pamphlet on mental health are outdated, ill-informed and stigmatising.
“It’s also incorrect to imply that spending on mental health in the NHS has increased by more than it should have, just because increases outpaced inflation since 1999. NHS mental health support has been underfunded for decades – including in 1999 – so the fact that spending has outpaced the pitiful increases it used to receive does not mean NHS services are now well funded. The almost 2 million people on waiting lists for mental health support can attest to that.”
Badenoch’s latest controversy comes after she was accused of “stigmatising” autism by backing different claims – in the same pamphlet – which suggested people with the condition get “economic advantages and protections”.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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