Frances Ryan

The right is always happy to weaponise mental health and disability. It just depends on the day whether they’re arguing you’re incapable because of it or you’re faking having it.

It’s funny how Kemi Badenoch thinks “mental health” has impacted Suella Braverman’s behaviour. I thought Kemi didn’t really believe in anxiety or depression? I guess that’s just for benefit claimants.

Haha yes I enjoyed that

Reform UK has also criticised the Tories for their comment about Suella Braverman’s mental health. A Reform source said: It’s a gross affront to millions of people in this country’s; it’s also not true. Whether you like Suella or not, she is a Cambridge-educated barrister who has served in a series of extraordinarily senior positions in this country. It goes without saying that she has never been diagnosd with a mental health condition.

Reform genuinely out here arguing Suella Braverman can’t have a mental health condition because *checks notes* she’s well-educated and has a successful career.

Try again, lads. Your bigotry is showing.

Tory defections were useful to Reform at the start but are now a real risk. There is little sense in packing the party full of the very politicians the electorate overwhelmingly voted out. You can’t pitch to fix the country whilst hiring the Home Secretary and cabinet who broke it.

Suella Braverman is clearly a bloody awful figure but a low blow for the Tory leadership to comment on her mental health. “The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health” is all a bit “she looks tired.” Braverman is a careerist racist. That’s more than enough to criticise.

Later, it emerged that Jenrick had been delayed because he had got lost in the corridors of Millbank Tower, getting stuck one floor below the press conference location after failing to find his way up the stairs. He will be hoping to now navigate Reform’s labyrinthine politics with greater success.

An exquisite detail from my @theguardian.com news colleagues on why Robert Jenrick was late to meet Nigel Farage onstage today.

Pleased at least some of the media are saying this stuff out loud.

Robert Jenrick shakes the hand of Nigel Farage. They are grinning to the camera.

There’s clear benefits to Nigel Farage embracing Tory defectors: it reinforces idea Tories are dying and Reform are the victors. But it’s a funny thing to take on ministers who screwed up what you’re criticising from a party the public voted out. If the Tories are dead, why smile with their ghosts?

A Mr Burns meme: Hello, my name is Mr Snrub and I come from someplace far away. Yes, that’ll do.

Tory MPs leaving the disgraced party and trying to get elected under the Reform banner.

Thank you! A horizontal champ.

That’s kind, thank you!

Romantic.

Haha thank you!

You can’t be what you can’t see.

So kind, thank you

Very kind, thank you!

I only speak for myself but I’ll personally give Kay a pass for “cripping up” as Brian Potter. Unlike Little Britain, Phoenix Nights managed to have a wheelchair user that didn’t perpetuate nasty stereotypes. He drank booze out of a vase! That’s representation.

Phoenix Nights: 25 years since Peter Kay’s record-breaking TV comedy like no other The eccentric, sharp-eyed sitcom was so loved that it was once the fastest-selling DVD ever. A quarter of a century on from its Channel 4 debut, why has it fallen so far off the radar?

I can only respect Peter Kay for not wanting Phoenix Nights on streaming because a part of the humour has racism in it (like so much of 2000 era comedy) but 25 years on, I still mourn the fact I can’t see “shabba!” again unless I YouTube a grainy DVD recording. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

In the meantime, thanks to every reader who has generously shared their stories with me over the years. The column wouldn’t be possible without you. Also the great editors and occasionally a lawyer. I’m off sick this month but hope to be back at it in February. Til then! x

I’ll always be grateful to @kiracochrane.bsky.social for inviting me to tap at the glass ceiling ten years ago, but above all, I hope by 2036 there are more people in the commentariat who look (and sound) like me. That or we’ll all have been replaced by A.I.

One of my bugbears is being described as the Guardian’s disability columnist but I never want to ignore the fact I’m thought to be Britain’s only physically disabled broadsheet columnist and the first wheelchair user, if only because it highlights how many brilliant writers were and are shut out.

I don’t overestimate the importance of banging out words (and Christ, things don’t look good out there) but I hope in even a small way it has nudged the national conversation: a Trojan horse of regular socialism in a British newspaper and an alternative take on policy (with jokes when they let me).

Over a decade, our wonderful readers have helped bring about tangible change: from overturning disability benefit rejections, helping people threatened with a nursing home stay in their own flat with social care, to raising tens of thousands for life-saving treatment, food, and accessible cars.

Today is 10 years of my Guardian column. When I started writing it in 2016 - back then under the (ironic) Hardworking Britain campaigning title - George Osborne was Chancellor, Covid hadn’t entered the lexicon, and Twitter had memes rather than revenge porn. Forgive me a very brief reflection.

Always.

Angry about Motability? Disabled people face a far bigger crisis Forget free luxury cars, many disabled people in Britain struggle to afford regular meals

The year ended with hysteria that disabled people are getting “free BMWs” through Motability. As 2026 begins, @theipaper.com asked me: what are disabled people in Britain really getting from the state? And what should politicians actually be arguing for? inews.co.uk/opinion/mota...

That’s really kind, thank you!

Angry about Motability? Disabled people face a far bigger crisis Forget free luxury cars, many disabled people in Britain struggle to afford regular meals

2025 ended with a backlash against disabled people supposedly getting “free BMWs” on Motability. To kick off 2026, the @theipaper.com asked me: what do disabled people in Britain really get from the state? And what do they actually need? inews.co.uk/opinion/mota...

The story has now been in the Daily Mail, Mirror, Sun, Express and more. It is great clickbait to make this a showbiz catfight but what we need is a nuanced conversation about language and representation, and of course treatment. Love to Jesy and all SMA folk tirelessly campaigning for years. 3/3