Farage's own goal on autism

[For readers outside the UK, Nigel Farage is the leader of an insurgent political party called Reform. He is known for leading the campaign for Brexit and used to sit in the European Parliament where he excelled at winding up Eurocrats. He is hoping that Reform will win significant numbers of seats in our local government elections next Friday (2 May 2025). The elections matter to the autism-parent community in the UK as local councils are the bodies that support children with special educational needs and adults with requirements for social care. Reform are likely to do well next week and this could have significant consequences for our community.]

Nigel Farage is known for having his finger on the pulse of mainstream public opinion and the independence of mind to think for himself, but he has it all wrong with his apparent dismissal of the epidemic of neurological disorders now afflicting children and families across the UK. Speaking at a press conference in Dover this week, Farage made the case for Reform to take over councils like Kent for the very first time. When asked about the rising demand for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) support that is now bankrupting many councils, he parroted the mainstream media line that this is about over-diagnosis rather than anything real.

Unusually, Farage lined up behind Labour Party politicians Wes Streeting, Bridget Phillipson and Liz Kendall to deny the scale of the problem. He also got his basic facts wrong by blaming trigger-happy GPs when in fact, the rising demand for services is driven by growing numbers of children with autism, a disorder that is assessed and diagnosed in specialist NHS clinics, for which there are often very long waits.

This has already proved to be a major own goal. Farage has been denounced for ‘misinformation’ (of course!) and people are stoking fears about cuts in services if Reform wins next week.

Farage needs to change tack to undercut his political rivals as he usually does. He could blindside his opponents by saying something original, thereby reaching a demographic who are wholly ignored in mainstream debates.

Autism and related neurological disorders now affect almost every family, community and institution in the country. Northern Ireland is the only area of the UK that has accurate monitoring, and rates there were as high as 1 in 20 for school aged children in 2023. These figures are in line with those published for the USA just last week, where as many as 1 in 31 8 year olds were diagnosed with autism in 2023.

It is lazy to blame GPs, parents or schools rather than facing up to the epidemic of neuro-immunological disorders that are crippling children and families across the UK.

Our son regressed into severe autism in the second year of his life. He has ongoing immune, bowel, sleep, behavioural and learning difficulties. He can’t have a conversation or look after himself. Despite spending 14 years in a range of schools, he never learned to hold a pencil, write his name or read a book. He will be dependent on us and the benefit system for the rest of his life. Sadly, we are not alone and there are people like us on every street, in every estate and every community across the UK. Something is causing this rising crisis of neurological disorders, of which severe autism is the most obvious and challenging manifestation today.

Talking to parents, schools, health teams and councils would help Farage and would-be councillors understand the depth of the crisis. Spending a day in one of the 1000 special schools in England would help him understand the depth of pain and suffering involved in caring for children with severe autism. Promising to do more would make him immensely popular in communities that are struggling to support children with severe disabilities with the attendant impacts on families that suffer much higher rates of divorce, worklessness and depression.

Trump’s Republican party has done this through the campaign to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) spearheaded by RF Kennedy Junior and championed by an army of autism parents who have been fighting for change over the past three decades. They are fed up with platitudes about improved public awareness, medical recognition and the joys of neurodiversity. They are resisting autism denial and provide a beacon of hope to parents like me.

We don’t have anything like the same parent movement in this country, but we do have the same set of problems. Our children are falling sick and being diagnosed with neurological disorders. This is devasting and it undermines families and communities, while bankrupting government and wasting precious tax revenue on unproductive activity. Contrary to the messages pedalled by government and the leading charities, autism rates are not due to over-diagnosis or the joys of neurodiversity. Its prevalence is a sign that something is terribly wrong. No successful species can stand by and allow the next generation to be sicker and less able than the previous one. Farage, like Kennedy and Trump, could campaign on this front. I would urge him to talk to his pals in the White House and learn the lessons from the MAHA campaign.

Reform could undercut the political competition by demanding that we:

1. Keep accurate records of autism diagnoses with an indicator for severity, using either SEND or NHS data, or both, as is already done in Northern Ireland. This is critical to understanding the scale of the problem.

2. Prioritise efforts to support the families involved, speed up assessment and diagnosis, reduce repetitive bureaucracy and provide appropriate specialist schools and services. This is about better use of the money already being spent and public recognition of the scale of the challenge involved.

3. Track new research now underway in the USA to understand the causes of autism. Ensure we learn from the findings, however uncomfortable, and act to protect the next generation before it’s too late.

4. Relatedly, insist that the NHS and its arms-length bodies address the co-morbidities affecting people with autism that may explain some of the autistic symptoms being displayed. This is about treating the immune, bowel and brain disorders affecting our precious children and shifting the approach to see autism as a neurological rather than a behavioural concern.

If Farage and his troops are successful next week, they will have to face up to this crisis. They can’t ignore the problem that is bankrupting local authorities. Further, they need to be proactive and address the problems rather than denying that they exist. They might even find there’s some votes to be had!