Key facts
- Whitehead said Badenoch was weaponising his sporting success to justify proposed welfare cuts.
- The Conservatives said savings would come from ending Disability Living Allowance for children with milder cases of some conditions.
- Badenoch said in the speech that disability benefits enabled people to live a life of dependency.
- Whitehead said he understood the welfare system needs a shake-up but that money should not be taken from people who need it.
- Whitehead has run more than 100 marathons and won four Paralympic medals.
Richard Whitehead, a double amputee marathon runner, said on November 11, 2026 that Kemi Badenoch had used his sporting record to justify proposed welfare cuts. Whitehead said he was surprised at her comments and angry that his achievements were being used in a campaign to take money from the most vulnerable.
In a speech on Tuesday, November 10, Badenoch, the Conservative party leader, cited double amputees running marathons while setting out proposed cuts to disability benefits worth £36bn. She said disability benefits were enabling people to live a life of dependency, while acknowledging there were people who genuinely cannot work.
Whitehead said several people sent him clips of the speech and that he was gobsmacked somebody's sporting success would be weaponised in that way. He said he understood the welfare system needs a shake-up but that money should not be taken from individuals who need it.
On social media, Whitehead said disability should never be judged through isolated examples of individual achievement. He invited Badenoch to a conversation about disability and said he wanted a response on the terminology she used.
The Conservatives said welfare savings would be made by ending Disability Living Allowance payments to families of children with milder cases of behavioral disorders, learning disabilities or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In her speech, Badenoch said telling a young person that their ADHD means they are defective would likely be more destructive to their future than the condition itself.