Kemi Badenoch proposes £36bn welfare cuts, draws fury over amputee remark
“Double amputees run marathons. People who are housebound do wonderful creative work from home. People with autism run some of the biggest tech companies in the world.” As one of those ‘good disabled workers’ Kemi Badenoch is today using to shame other sick people, I will say: do fuck off.
Frances Ryan864On the long list of ludicrous anti-disability benefit statements over the years, “Have you considered being a tech billionaire?” is my new absolute favourite.
carerjim.bsky.social195It’s always “Disabled people can…” They never say how It’s damn near impossible to get an able bodied person to remove their luggage from the wheelchair space on public transport, but disabled people who want acceptance need to run marathons ffs.
Gemma Bristow162As someone with a chronic illness who's in remission through treatment, I know that the difference between me and people with the same condition who are sicker and not in work isn't some can-do attitude. People differ in their type and severity of symptoms, how they respond to medication,
l'Esprit de l'Escalier81As the old joke goes, if you asked Kemi to walk a mile in your shoes, she'd be a mile away and she'd have stolen your shoes.
Sauron.68The Tory’s are and have always been toxic. A double amputee runs in a marathon They should be applauded for their courage. And if they need help to live a normal a life as possible then they should be helped not demonised. Kemi has lived a life of privilege what does she know about anything
Bill Eborn65Some double amputees can run marathons and the car they got from motability paid for by the mobility component of PIP means they are able to get to the race
Mallory Moore199As a neurodivergent hacker it took me until age 33 to actually get a tech job despite hacking stuff since I was in my want teens. It wasn't that I didn't want one but navigating education and recruitment was a nightmare for both. Most employers don't actually want autistic tech nerds.
Dr Florence H R Scott156Disabled people who have jobs are able to work because of the right adaptations, adjustments, support, and/or benefits. The existence of ‘successful’ disabled people is an argument for more support, not less
Minnie Rahman48Labour also championing this frame. Deserving vs undeserving, earn rights through contribution. That reliance on the welfare state is a negative indicator of the person in receipt. It should be a positive that the state looks after its people, or an indicator that the economy is failing its people.
John Harris27For better or worse, Badenoch just made the argument for autism sub-types
Laura Elliott26seconded, and i will ALSO say that the only reason i was able to write Awakened while housebound was because of PIP, which doesn’t quite fit with the politician view of disability benefits being for scroungers & the ‘good working disabled people’ doing it on our own
Stephen Graham23We should make Badenoch run a marathon.
Dara O'Reilly23I imagine any double amputee who can run a marathon has benefited from excellent state support, such as specialist prosthetics, at home care, regular assessments etc. I imagine Ms Badenoch is pledging to boost this type of support so that any disabled person can achieve their ambitions?
No Orgone November14Is he referring to Elon fucking Musk
Lucy Webster14Double amputees with access to prosthetics and rehab Housebound people with time, money and energy to invest Autistic people whose traits are celebrated and nurtured, not shunned Not all disabled people have these privileges. This is like saying all tall people should play professional basketball
Rachel Charlton-Dailey14The reason I can work from home and able to choose to work less hours that fit my chronic illness is that I have PIP to fall back on. PIP is not an out of work benefit, instead thanks to the gov cutting support it's the only fallback we have
Double amputees run marathons so we will cut support for some of the most vulnerable people is truly social media brain rot thinking. These plans show absolutely zero awareness of the benefits system, or the varying needs of so many disabled individuals. www.lbc.co.uk/article/bade...
Dr Jo Kershaw7I bet some of those double amputees are enabled to run marathons by PIP (and hooray! That’s how it should work!)
Ghost of Hope 🏳️⚧️4Or... They have full awareness but they're eugenicists
david-s.bsky.social2The cost of not supporting people with ADHD is losing our humanity. "Mortality Among People With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder -A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis" jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
invisibldiscarded.bsky.social2Work will set us free.
Badenoch says 'double amputees run marathons' as she defends plan to slash disability benefits as part of £36bn welfare cuts - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
John O’Donnell66She really is thick as shit.
Louise47Man alive, that's a) a callous and dismissive argument and b) bonkers. The double amputees that 'run marathons' are exceptions.
Jack Churchill's Arrow35Any fucking thicker she'd set.
Richard M.34'double amputees run marathons' because we have a NHS & a benefit system that allows them to live a life after catastrophic surgery! Badenoch really is the stupidest Conservative leader... Well, since Truss anyway! 🙄
Janey Llou (Jane to my friends)26A lot of them run marathons to raise money for charities because the benefit system is inadequate.
James Woodfield15And people with learning difficulties become Tory leaders
David Ziggy Greene (Jam bookshop)66One surprise I learned during the many years of reporting on various disability issues was that the disabled community isn't particularly as enthusiastic about the Paralympics as the media are. It's for the very reason that it gives the public a false sense of the real life struggles
Patrick - Here for the craic❗️🤷🏼♂️😉59As Badenoch is now an expert on what disabled people can do Let her explain what disabiles super rich from paying more tax and not using tax loopholes Increasing tax on super rich by just 2% and shutting tax loopholes could save £25 bn a year or more a yr But as a Tory she targets the vulnerable
Katherine Stark 🔜 Dragonmeet29Meanwhile, if I were to say that the British government should force all conservatives to live on PIP until they were able to demonstrate empathy for another human being, the British press would suddenly and mysteriously develop an understanding of social murder
Citizen.Coping25Right-wing Black folks tend to be ashy. Maybe the cruelty siphons moisture.
Ruth Watson19This is an appalling take in so many ways. The Tories are clinging to their 'nast party' crown.
Dave Vetter15Britain's continued descent into necropolitics needs to be studied.
David Cake11The nasty party but more the lack of understanding party. if you have chronic health conditions you can have all your limbs and struggle to even get around a shop. Kemi is bright enough to know this but cruel enough to use it to gain power.
Champie11‘People with no empathy can run a political party.’
Jeremy Allen9£1bn shy of what the Tories squandered on Test and Trace
Tom Holbrook6This death-spiral austerity must be pinned to the corpse of the Tory Party by Andy Burnham – the decline of everything around us for the benefit of the few has to be made socially toxic.
I’m in Westminster, where Kemi Badenoch is about to set out how the Conservatives plans to cut £36bn from the social security bill. This would bring huge cuts particularly to sickness and disability benefits. It’s fair to say some opponents don’t see this as 100% realistic.
Peter Walker36For example, it’s not clear how/if the Tories have factored in likely longer term knock-on costs eg from more children being in poverty or homeless.
HGJohn8Assuming they don’t want to commit electoral suicide by cutting the state pension, the Tories have to show how they can cut the welfare budget by 20%. This will be interesting. Who will be the victims? (Deliberate choice of word)
His Royal Huwness 🏴🐸🇵🇸🇪🇺7johnhuwevans.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/r... Last time today I promise. The Nazis also scapegoated the unemployed, disabled, mentally ill, and immigrants. Sound familiar?
nigelburns.bsky.social5We’re moving into the next stage. We’ve all but halted immigration. Now we’re going to start victimising the immigrants that are here I dread to think what comes after that.
Edward Harkins4Utterly brain dead unlearning Tory Party, still the 'nasty party', actually yearning to get back to being that. One Nation Conservative values long gone into the mists of history.
Old Hobbit🐸4Maybe she can pipe up during the 2 minute silence tomorrow and suggest that Armed Forces disabled veterans don't deserve any help.
Andy Scollick5Back to the good old days under the Conservatives
Sue3#Tories being the #NastyParty as always! Truly hope these cunts never get into power again 🤬 #UC #PIP #Benefits #WelfareNotWarfare #PunchingDown
Canaries Caption It3Same old Tories whatever the attempt to re-brand. Punching down on the weakest/poorest rather than punching up on the richest.
She's a truly nasty piece of shit, isn't she? #KemiBadEnoch www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Pollik4Also, non-disabled don't run marathons. Because running a marathon is very fucking hard. She should try it.
Sodham Hall Jackie 🏏3She’s a Tory - nasty is in their DNA.
Jeanie1Yes. Yes she is...... 😡
3wombats1😡 It’s getting hard to not to wish ill on some of these empathy free types.
Meredith 🇨🇦 🇺🇦1Like Clarence Thomas on our side of the pond, I truly would love to know what she sees when she looks in the mirror. There has to be a particular type of dysphoria happening at the root of all this.
Simon Evans1Helen Whately droned on and on about a benefits lifestyle culture, despite herself living on benefits herself....rent allowance £39k last year despite her home being 45 miles from Westminster, energy bills paid by the taxpayer. Dreadful lazy lies about PIP. Despicable stuff.
I'm a single amputee, housebound, and autistic. Badenoch nailed me on three counts. Yes, I am still capable of doing things. BUT I couldn't do any of them if the country I live in didn't support me in doing them. I need financial help from the state to live. It's that simple, Kemi.
NeverFadingWood 🏴🇵🇱🇪🇺3A grown-up civilised society looks after itself and the people who make it up, it doesn't demonise ever more normal people and fucking punish them for daring to exist.
Kresy Siberia3I really hate the way politicians seize on the paralympics to shame the majority of disabled people who can’t run marathons.
Tycjan Chmiel2It’s this constant measuring people by your own yardstick that does my nut in. I just can’t for the life of me understand how someone in her position can have so little imagination as to how other people might lead their lives, and how they might need help, and how yes, we should help them.
