• Mental Health: Shocking stats show Govt are failing young people
• Vennells CBE: Now Dowden needs to explain why he failed to sack her as a Cabinet Office Director
• Surrey oil drilling given go-ahead: A shameful decision. Local MP, Jeremy Hunt must intervene

Mental Health: Shocking stats show Govt are failing young people

Ahead of Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson’s Bill to introduce mental health professionals into schools, statistics show that 61% of those waiting for mental health support had stopped attending school, college, university, or work.

• 58% missed more than two weeks of school, 42% missed more than a month and 20% missed more than six months

• A fifth of young people wait more than six months for help. While waiting, 41% said that their mental health got worse

These statistics show the catastrophic impact the lack of mental health provision is having on young people’s lives in both schools and in the workplace, leaving over half unable to attend.

In response, the Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson MP will be introducing a bill to the Commons today which intends to give all state schools access to a qualified mental health professional.

Ahead of the introduction of the bill, the Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said:

This Conservative Government has failed time and again to tackle the crisis in mental health services for children and young people. Children and young people in England who have a probable mental health disorder are not getting the help they need and deserve.

Children waiting for mental health support often don’t go to school and that will be affecting their educational outcomes and life chances, often leaving their condition to get worse. That is just wrong.

My Bill will help to tackle this issue by requiring every school to have access to a qualified mental health professional funded by the Government, helping young people get the support they need, working to achieve early intervention before issues escalate.

Vennells CBE: Now Dowden needs to explain why he failed to sack her as a Cabinet Office Director

The Lib Dems have called on Oliver Dowden to come clean about why he failed to sack Vennells from her Cabinet Office role, after the High Court judgment in Bates was handed down during his time as Cabinet Office Minister in 2019.

Responding to Paula Vennells handing back her CBE, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

Paula Vennells is right to hand back her CBE, but the Conservatives still need to explain why they gave it to her in the first place in 2019, along with a plum job at the top of the Cabinet Office.

Oliver Dowden needs to explain why he failed to sack Paula Vennells as a Cabinet Office Director when the High Court judgment was handed down in 2019, exposing her full involvement in the Horizon scandal.

Nobody rewarded Paula Vennells more than this Conservative Government.

Surrey oil drilling given go-ahead: A shameful decision. Local MP, Jeremy Hunt must intervene

Responding to the Court of Appeal giving the go-ahead for large scale gas drilling in Jeremy Hunt’s Surrey constituency, Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:

This is a shameful outcome.

This Conservative government’s policies have resulted in greedy gas barons ripping up the Surrey Hills. They have railroaded this through the courts despite local outrage at the plans.

Surrey’s green land is about to be torn up, proving you simply can’t trust the Conservatives on the environment.

As the local MP, Jeremy Hunt must now intervene. He is supporting a policy which will allow his constituency to become an oil field. Local people will be furious at his silence.