International Men’s Day Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Judith Cummins
Main Page: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)Department Debates - View all Judith Cummins's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 day, 6 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
I call Josh Newbury, who will speak for around 15 minutes.
Several hon. Members rose—
Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
Order. I will impose an immediate four-minute time limit.
Susan Murray (Mid Dunbartonshire) (LD)
I thank the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) for bringing forward this debate, but also for sharing his experience.
I am the mother of two young men, and I am very proud of the way they tackle the challenges that life has put in their way with kindness and resilience. Before the debate, I took the time to sit down with some more young men, and we talked about their experience of living as young men in the UK today. They are successful individuals, university graduates with good jobs and what, from the outside, look like steady lives, yet their outlook was shockingly bleak. They talked about their belief that, without support or systemic change, they would never own a house. They are resentful about their opportunity to build up a good pension. They talked about how the cost of living is reaching a point where even basic leisure activities, such as sport after work, are becoming unaffordable. Most worryingly of all, they talked about how younger men are being radicalised by this. They said they are increasingly seeing boys and young men being pushed into far-right and hateful echo chambers while searching for an alternative path.
It is clear that we are failing young people as a whole, and young men in particular. Buying a house is a distant dream for most young people, and even renting is, by the Government’s own assessment, unaffordable. Mental ill health services are inaccessible, and male suicide is now the biggest killer of men under 50. Young men are falling behind young women in education and earnings, which at a time when traditional expectations are shifting, is challenging their sense of identity and place in society. This is not about dismissing the struggles faced by women, many of which are the same; it is about recognising the nuance in the ways these pressures affect men differently and how many men cope with them differently.
Too often this debate swings between two extremes: those who wish to dismiss men’s concerns altogether; and those who wish to capitalise on male disillusionment to sow division and hatred. That is why we welcome the Government’s new men’s health strategy, and applaud the campaigners and organisations that fought so hard to bring it to us at this moment. It is right that the Government finally recognise the specific ways in which men are suffering—from suicide to substance abuse and prostate cancer—but we need to go further. Many of the steps are still modest, especially on suicide. I have been directly affected by the suicide of a young man, who had his full future ahead of him. As we have heard, this is the greatest killer of men under 50, but the Government have scrapped the suicide prevention grant—a £10 million lifeline—and the new measures barely replace it. With thousands of people dying by suicide every year, we have to be more ambitious. That means restoring the suicide prevention grant in full, introducing regular mental health checks at key points in life and tackling the wider determinants of health, including ending rough sleeping, which disproportionately affects men.
Beyond mental health, we must also address the deep sense of hopelessness felt by so many young men. We must acknowledge that men are now 14% less likely to attend university than women, and we need to provide respected alternative routes into good work through apprenticeships and skills programmes. We must also confront the housing crisis more quickly. Investment in housing will not only ease pressure on the market, but create long-term jobs in construction and engineering. This is deeply important because, ultimately, we can invest in mental health support, but without job prospects, a home to build a life in and a future to believe in, young men will continue to feel hopeless, and when young men feel hopeless, they will continue to look for answers from those on the extremes. So while I welcome the men’s health strategy, this is just the first step of many.