I fear for friendless children of lockdown, says minister

PARENTS are raising a generation of children who have never played with a friend because of the coronavirus lockdown, the Government’s Loneliness Minister has warned.

Baroness Barran said that “feelings of loneliness are consistently highest amongst young people” as she urged people to approach solitary friends or neighbours to check that they are all right.

The peer, who became the world’s first loneliness minister in 2019, was speaking in the run-up to “Blue Monday” tomorrow, a day known as the most depressing day of the year.

She warned that toddlers were the emerging victims of Covid restrictions as England’s third national lockdown in 10 months enters its third week.

In an interview on Chopper’s Politics podcast, Lady Barran, 61, said: “I do worry about the children. I spoke to a young mother … and her young child had not played face to face with another child throughout the whole year.”

She added that she had been surprised to find that feelings of loneliness were consistently highest amongst young people, and they had told her they were embarrassed to admit to loneliness. She went on: “People think: ‘This must be my fault. There is something wrong with me.’ And it’s not. It’s a natural human condition. And one of the simplest, best things you can do is talk about it.”

Lady Barran urged people to go and speak to those who are alone.

“Pick up the phone or write a card or a letter or send an email. Any one of those things will make a difference to somebody that day.”