Black and Asian people with learning disabilities are more likely to die young – this grim fact alone should compel Sajid Javid to act

While issues like institutional racism, unconscious bias and white privilege are hotly debated, Saba Salman asks why there is no comparable focus on the dual discrimination facing disabled people from diverse backgrounds

(PA)

It is a shocking and well-documented fact that people with a learning disability die around 27 years younger than the general population because of health inequalities. Now it is clear that the learning disabled people most likely to die young are those from Black, Asian or minority backgrounds.

This grim fact, which has no place in a modern, civilised, multicultural society, is among the findings in the recently published NHS-commissioned report, the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review.

Tackling these shameful inequalities is in the remit of the newly appointed health and social care secretary Sajid Javid – and the evidence compels him to act.