Olivia Blake (b.1990) is a British Labour politician. She has been the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam since the 2019 general election. She revealed she had ADHD during a Commons debate on special educational needs and children’s mental health.
Yorkshire Post (2022)
Olivia Blake, the Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam, said comments made to her as a child calling her lazy and disorganised “stick in my brain to this day and make me consider all my actions daily.”
Ms Blake was only diagnosed with the condition last year, and now takes medication which she says is “lifechanging.”
Speaking in a debate in Westminster Hall on special educational needs and children’s mental health, she said: “Lazy, distracted, too chatty, fidgety, failing to meet potential, disorganised and in disarray, those were all comments that were levelled at me as a child, and they stick in my brain to this day and make me consider all my actions daily.
“This has led to huge feelings of anxiety and depression—a feeling that I am always doing something wrong.
“I meet too many children whose stories are still the same: their needs are not recognised or are not severe enough to merit critical help, and they are stuck in the middle, reaching their potential in some subjects and failing in others.”