Labour MP Alison McGovern has criticised comments from the Work and Pensions Secretary, who has claimed that Britain’s mental health culture has gone too far.
Mel Stride claimed that “normal anxieties” are being branded illnesses as he outlined plans to get 150,000 people signed-off with “mild illness” back to work.
Asked about the claims, McGovern told GB News: “The only thing that has gone too far in this country is the Conservative government that's had 14 years to sort out our mental health support in this country.
“If Mel stride is looking at Britain and thinking, ‘we've got a problem with the mental health support system’, or any other aspect of what government does, he's had 14 years in power to put it right. So if I'm honest, I'm at a loss to understand what Mel stride is talking about.
“If there's something that needs to change, as I say he's been in power for 14 years, what we need is Labour's plan, which will bring together the support for people to get into work and to get a better job and our mental health support services.
“We know that actually having a good job is really good for your mental health, the sense of routine, the sense of purpose that a good job brings, the colleagues that create that sense of friendship. So having good work is good for your mental health. I honestly I don't know what Mel Stride’s talking about.”
Speaking during Breakfast with Ellie Costello and Stephen Dixon, she continued: “What needs to be addressed is to make sure that we have good work in this country that supports people's good mental health, as I just mentioned, and alongside that, we need a mental health system as part of our NHS that can really help people.
“If you're a child or a young person needing mental health support, the waiting list can be years long, and that's not good enough.
“We need Labour's plan to support our health service including mental health support with 8,500 extra mental health workers so that we can improve that quality of service for people.
“That's Labour's plan, to help improve our country because we know that good public services mean better health which is supportive our of our economy, as well as giving people a better quality of life. That's what we're focused on.”
She added: “Mel stride can try and make headlines on what's happened but I'm focused on making sure that Labour have got a good plan going into the General Election, that we want to do in government is to help improve the health of the nation.”
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