Jamie Oliver backs campaign of dyslexic MP told he would ‘fail’

Feeling “different”, struggling to put pen to paper, and being told he would “fail” were all part of Adam Dance’s experience growing up with dyslexia.

But he says having the condition also gave him drive, eventually inspiring him to become an MP to help others in similar situations.

Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing and spelling. Dance, who is the MP for Yeovil, in Somerset, was diagnosed with the condition aged seven.

Two years after opening up about his dyslexia on BBC Breakfast, TV chef Jamie Oliver has joined Dance to call on the government to make changes to education for children with the condition.

Dance said dyslexia meant he faced many challenges growing up, with teachers telling him he would “fail at life” because of his disability.

Oliver said recently he believed the system was “too slim” for dyslexic and neurodivergent children, and there were “too many kids falling through the cracks”.

“I just felt different,” Dance said. “What I found really difficult was getting my words onto paper.

“If there was a word I wanted to use and didn’t know how to get it on paper, I’d use a word that was less good.”

Dance is now calling on the government to support teachers by giving them training in dyslexia and providing accessible technology.

“This is something so close to my heart and one of the reasons I got involved in politics,” he said.

Dance says teachers are “brilliant” but “overworked, underpaid and need more support”.

Part of his campaign is to get students access to technology that could help them, which is something both he and Oliver have benefitted from.

“I couldn’t do my job without a dictaphone,” Dance said. “Jamie Oliver told me he wrote all his books with a dictaphone.

“That’s proof you can do things in different ways, you just need to be given the tools.

“This is a subject we have to keep going on about.”

Dance was bullied at school but now talks to students about his journey with dyslexia.

“One boy came up to me and said ‘does this mean, because we have dyslexia, we’re not going to fail in life?’,” he said.

“I tell them if I didn’t have dyslexia, I wouldn’t be where I am in life. Because it gave me drive.”