Does the British government care about veterans’ suicides?

Ex-veterans minister Johnny Mercer appears to have launched a one-man frontal assault on the UK government. Rarely a day goes by when he isn’t voraciously criticising their shoddy treatment of veterans. Speaking as a veteran and ex-British Army officer like Mercer, I can’t say I blame him. One tour of Afghanistan was enough to break me. Mercer did three.

Mercer’s most recent broadside came after the news that the eleventh person from 2 Rifles, an infantry regiment that served in Iraq and Afghanistan, had killed himself.

‘That veterans who served in the bloodiest conflict this country has seen for 50 years are still taking their lives in 2021 because they cannot find help is a shocking stain on our nation,’ Mercer said after Andy Francis’ death. ‘Veterans’ care does exist but accessing it and navigating clear care pathways remain deeply challenging — impossible, I would suggest, for the poor souls who reach the levels of desperation we have seen this week.