Jake Berry opens up for first time about his son’s condition as he urges Sunak to ‘do more’

Opening up to Gloria De Piero, the former Chairman of the Tory party, said: “I've always been quite reticent to talk about this, but I think people in public life actually should talk about their family.

“And following the COVID lockdowns, we've seen an explosion of children with special educational needs and it's such a battle for parents. So I feel compelled to speak out about it.

WATCH HERE: GB News sits down with Jake Berry 

“My son Milo is 6. He's diagnosed with Autumn Spectrum Disorder. He doesn't talk. He's nonverbal. So I just know as a parent how difficult that is. He is an amazing little boy. I've got three children. I love all of them. But he is something really special. Everyone just tells you it's OK. But as a parent, you come to the point and you go: it's not.”

Explaining how the diagnosis was almost a relief when it came, he said: “When you get that diagnosis, the first thing is it's almost like a relief because you say, ‘I'm not going crazy.’ It is like a grieving process for the child that you thought that you were going to have, which may not be there anymore.

“I don't blame anyone else for feeling like that because that's exactly how I felt. And then you hit the Internet. And then as a parent, you think, well, what's going to happen to him when I'm not here?

“As a parent, you go into this spiral of grief and despair. We've been through that, my wife and I, and we've come out the other side of it. But it's a very, very difficult time for people.”

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Berry also opened up about the reasons why he resigned from Government.

He said: “We first got the diagnosis in late 2019, early 2020, when Milo would have been nearly four, my wife was just about to have another baby. I was a minister in Boris Johnson's Government. I was a Northern Powerhouse minister. And my wife had quite bad postnatal depression.

“The reason I resigned from the Government is because I personally decided like every other parent would that I'm going to do everything I can to try and change the trajectory for my child.”

Reports later emerged that Mr Berry, the MP for Rossendale and Darwen, was living on Anglesey during the coronavirus lockdown. And he received criticism from some quarters about the way he moved around the UK during lockdown.

​Addressing that criticism he said: “I had three infant children. I was driving to the hospital every day because my wife was expressing milk in the hospital for our two-week-old daughter and that everyone had a difficult time doing lockdown. That was really, really difficult.

“I ended up not being at home and being away with her for lockdown. We got massively criticised. I just challenge anyone: What would you do if your wife was 150 miles away and she was going to be admitted to hospital and you had three infant children, including a two-week-old baby? I just wanted to set the record straight about that. I get paid to take the flak but my family doesn't.

“And that's why I've thought so much about doing this interview. Because now, as we're coming towards an election, the fact that I spent eight weeks, three years ago over in Wales during lockdown, is being weaponised by my political opponents against, you know, my wife, my family, really against the situation we found ourselves in. And I think that is not the way to behave.”

“I don't think politics is about the smear. We do it because we want to make people's lives better. That's why I'm calling for all of my colleagues in the House of Commons to start doing much more to support families for children with special educational needs. No matter how bad it is, when you've got that darkest hour, it gets better.

Speaking movingly of the love he has for his son he added: “He's a lot better now. But as a parent it just rips you, It just rips your insides out. It's made me a better human being. And the reason it's maybe a better human being is because Milo doesn't talk.

“You don't know if he's looking forward to anything. So I can say we're going to the park tomorrow. And I don't know if he knows. But when you get there, more so than any other than my other two kids, the joy he takes in the moment of being there is extraordinary.

“The biggest lesson he has taught me is to take joy in every moment I'm so, so grateful to have him as my son and those lessons that he's taught me.”