Minister casts a slur on GPs’ competence

CHILD poverty in our country is at record levels, and increasing at an alarming rate. Last week, the government’s own statistics revealed that a third of those between infancy and adulthood, around 4.3 million children, are living in “relative poverty”, up from 3.6 million in 2010/11. The proportion of children living in “absolute poverty” in

2022-23 rose by its highest rate for 30 years. Recent official statistics also show that over 142,000 children are living in “temporary” accommodation, often of appalling standards and for years rather than weeks or months. Such kids are being robbed of their childhood, in many cases permanently impairing their life chances and future mental and physical health.

Yet my own MP, Mel Stride, a senior government minister, believes that “today’s more open approach to mental health may have gone too far”, and that “there is a real risk now that we are labelling the normal ups and downs of human life as medical conditions...”

He claims, without evidence, that if a person attends his GP “feeling rather down and bluesy... on 94% of occasions they will be signed off as not fit to carry out any work whatsoever”. This, while Mr Stride introduces new measures to force benefits claimants into work.

As a retired GP, may I remind Mr Stride that there’s overwhelming evidence that present and future mental health problems can indeed result from the poverty we see all around us.

I believe it likely that most GPs will respond to Mr Stride’s slur on their competence by agreeing that most people certified unfit to work due to mental health disorders would love to be in a secure job that they can manage and would provide fulfilment in their lives.

And of course Mr Stride knows all this perfectly well, but for his own reasons, chooses to ignore it. Mr Stride calls for “an honest, grown-up debate” on the subject. I wonder if he would care to give his own honest

explanation of how this dire increase in poverty has come to pass in one of the richest countries in the world.

But please could he spare us the usual claptrap from most government spokespeople, parroting how much money has been allocated to this or that area of need?

The point is this: what has been provided over the last 14 years is nowhere near sufficient.