The Conservatives can become the party of mental health — here’s how

For too long, Westminster has overlooked mental health. It has been languishing in funding obscurity for decades as a forgotten arm of the NHS. But thankfully, there was a shift in priorities during the last Parliament as all political parties woke up to the importance of providing good mental health care. The issue rose so far up the policy agenda that the merits of different types of long-term psychotherapy became the subject of repeated and impassioned debate in the Cabinet Office.

All parties have realised that mental ill-health is a problem that affects everyone. Currently one in four people struggle with mental health issues every year and the number is rising at an alarming rate. People with serious mental illness die on average 15-20 years earlier than those without it.