Mental Health (Armed Forces Veterans)

Johnny Mercer Excerpts

Wednesday 14th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer (Plymouth, Moor View) (Con)]

Madam Deputy Speaker, I was going to share the time with the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Dr Cameron).

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

In order to do so, the hon. Gentleman must have the permission of the person whose debate it is, the Minister and the occupant of the Chair. He clearly has the agreement of the Minister and of Dr Cameron. He has my agreement, too.

[Johnny Mercer]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I apologise—I spoke to Mr Speaker before you took the Chair.

I thank the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow for giving me a few minutes of her allocated time, and offer my sincere thanks to her for bringing what the Prime Minister rightly described today as “this very important issue” before the House. He correctly identified the strategic defence and security review as an opportunity to get our approach right in the future, and I fully support him in that intention.

The subject before us this evening refers to that great stain on this nation of ours, which I mentioned when I first spoke in this House. I regret to say that, aside from some excellent individual practice and charitable work, the way we look after our veterans’ mental health in this country remains poor. Many of our young men and women, who by good training and fortune walked away from battle without any physical scars, have been stricken in later years by an underlying sickness that can tear at the very core of the strongest and most enduring individual. I speak as a Conservative Member of Parliament. I work hard to support all the efforts of Government to produce and implement the exciting and progressive agenda so clearly laid out by the Prime Minister a week ago, but on this issue, while it remains in its current state, I am afraid I will not be silenced.

I have no personal agenda to drive here. I have never had the misfortune to need to use one of our tremendous military charities. I will forever be the soldiers’ voice in this debate, crafted from much time spent on operations with our young men and women, and now in my privileged position as a Member of this House and attracting a great deal of correspondence on this issue it is incumbent upon me to speak out and I will do so. I feel embarrassed at my fellow man sometimes as we stand here again tonight in 2015 in the seat of the world’s most advanced democracy and talk yet again about the stigma of mental health.

The stigma results from a basic lack of education and understanding about a human condition that affects one in four of us—a condition as medically valid as a broken leg or a fractured arm, but because it occurs in our heads, its treatment has historically been subjected to unacceptable social, political and financial disadvantage. That stigma ends in this Parliament, and I will not rest until it has.

[Dr Philippa Whitford (Central Ayrshire) (SNP)]

I had the honour of chairing a disability employment session at the TUC today and a young man with autism came out with what I thought was a fantastic phrase about mental health issues in the workplace: “There is no normal.” We all have mental health; sometimes it is good and sometimes it is not. Maybe instead of us thinking about a certain percentage having a problem, we should acknowledge that we all have different problems at different times. That might make it easier for people to come forward.

[Johnny Mercer]

Absolutely, and when we have more time, we might discuss specific projects looking at what normal is and that process. That is an important part of this.

I could inevitably speak all night on this issue, but I will not. In preparation for tonight, I stayed up most of last night and read as much as I could of a couple of books I have on my desk in my office here in Westminster. One is called “Aftershock” by Matthew Green and another is called “The Battle against Stigma” by Mark Neville. We have got better in this area as a nation over the last few years. I would ask however that before any of us enter into an exercise of back-slapping on how far we have come on mental health, we all read those two books and reflect on both what we ask of our servicemen and women and how we look after them when they come back.

[Mrs Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (Con)]

The issue in the north-east is that large numbers of young men go to war on our behalf and come back, but there is not the support for them. Many of them fought in Northern Ireland and 20 years on they have gone back to normal life and are struggling. There is just no support for them or their families. It is a particular crisis in my region because it has a large former military population.

[Johnny Mercer]

Mental health and the time lag involved is increasingly well publicised, and people are becoming more aware of it, but we have a long way to go on that and we see that on a daily basis.

Our British public have in the latter part of the last decade been the knight in shining armour flying over the horizon and rescuing some of our most war-scarred individuals. They have given millions upon millions of pounds, and donated time, effort, blood, sweat and tears to looking after our boys and girls. They are, quite simply, what makes Britain great, and what make us, when we are away, so proud, and fight so hard for the country we love.

Similarly, now this Government have for the first time been elected on a manifesto that explicitly stated a parity between mental and physical health—the first time in history that has occurred. Similarly, we now have waiting time target lists for mental health, again for the first time in history. This Government get it, and I am proud to be a part of it, and I thank the Minister personally for his valiant efforts in this regard. There is so much further to go, however, to win what I would call part of an internal “generational struggle” of ours in veterans care.

Finally tonight I wanted to guard against a misunderstanding of the problem. The vast majority of servicemen and women in this country make a stable and successful transition back to civilian life. They are cornerstones of our communities—directors of companies, nurses, doctors, shopkeepers, lawyers and manufacturers.

Our job in this place is to look after the 10%, those who through no fault of their own find life a daily struggle, those who with a bit of bad luck or a couple of poor decisions could be any one of us and, in particular tonight, that refers to those who have often given their best years in the service of the nation, but have found returning to a civilian life the hardest fight of all.

[Rebecca Pow]

We should always mention the families because they are often deeply affected and we need to support them.

[Johnny Mercer]

I agree.

So let us now win this fight and take our place as a country at the vanguard of contemporary veterans care. In five years’ time it will be too late. The momentum in the battle will be lost, and we will simply be fighting fires. The politics of good intentions and at times tokenism is finished; we must get this right, and I look forward to it being prioritised as such in the forthcoming strategic defence and security review.