Nadine Dorries urged to help dyslexic kids after citing condition over interview muddle

A mother whose daughter has struggled with symptoms of dyslexia since the age of three has urged Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries to do more to help dyslexic children, after she accused commentators of mocking her for the learning difficulty after she muddled her words in a widely-shared clip.

In a TikTok interview with a Tory backbencher, the minister responsible for digital, culture, media and sport is heard talking about people being able to “downstream” – rather than download or stream – films online, before referring to tennis courts as “pitches”.

Taking to Twitter to defend the mix-ups, the cabinet minister said her dyslexia means she can find it “difficult” to find the correct expression when speaking.

“I have dyslexia, which means that when I speak I often run my words together and say things that sound like the words I’m trying to say,” said Ms Dorries.

“Sometimes it’s funny and I laugh it off… but mostly, it’s just difficult.“I’m OK with that. I’ve been in politics a long time and you grow a thick skin. It’s why I haven’t spoken publicly much about how it affects me.

“But I’ve found it tough seeing commentators and media outlets mock me for something that is beyond my control.

“For other dyslexia sufferers, we learn that it’s what you achieve in life that counts, not what those who mock you say.”

Katie Watkins, whose nine-year-old daughter is currently going through the process of getting a dyslexia diagnosis, told i that Ms Dorries had done little to support children experiencing dyslexia while citing it as “an excuse for her mistakes”.

“How can she expect people to be sympathetic when her Government has made it so difficult for children with special educational needs to get the help they need at every step?” she asked.

“My daughter has dyslexia and the Government makes her take multiple tests and work to an unobtainable standard.

“The arts have been pushed out of the school curriculum. Nadine Dorries has done nothing to challenge this and shown no empathy. She deserves no sympathy.”

Ms Watkins, who is a mother-of-two, says the family suspected Lucy had something like dyslexia since she was three. “Lucy would get her words muddled up when speaking and use the wrong letters.

“She would also do things like putting her shoes on the wrong feet and when she was learning to read, she found it very difficult.”

“When she went into reception, she found it very difficult to sit and concentrate and she became very subdued.”

Ms Watkins, who used to be a secondary school teacher and now works for a charity, says being a teacher, she recognised the signs her daughter was displaying as dyslexia.

She said since moving Lucy to a new primary school, she has had great support and her confidence has been built up and she is seeing an educational psychologist and going through the process of getting a dyslexia diagnosis.

Ms Watkins said: “I feel like she is trying to use dyslexia to gain sympathy… she should have been vocal about it and advocated for the children with dyslexia and all the difficulties they are facing in schools.

“But she has never done that – and neither has the Government she works for. Instead, the Government has narrowed the curriculum and made it more difficult for children to access the arts – some schools don’t offer drama as a GCSE now.

“These creative subjects are things that children with dyslexia and other neurodivergent issues can flourish at as even if they might not be academic, they can use their imagination and become more confident.

“So to hear Nadine Dorries mention dyslexia as an excuse for her getting her words wrong is a sore subject when there are so many children struggling with it and not getting the help and access to subjects they need.”

Dyslexia is described by the NHS as a common learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing and spelling.

The footage of Ms Dorries, posted online by Luke Evans, the Tory MP for Bosworth, sees her explaining the work of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which she oversees.

“We’re responsible for making sure you have superfast broadband in your home, that means you can downstream your movies,” she told Dr Evans.

The Secretary of State then said she wanted to “make the internet in the UK the safest internet in the world”.

She went on to say her department was also “responsible for everything to do with sport, making sure you’ve got football pitches and that you have tennis pitches in your communities where you can play and exercise your sport”.

In her Twitter thread, Ms Dorries said: “Dyslexia affects people differently. For me, it affects my speech more than my writing, which is why I find solace in writing.”