Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Member for Mental Health and Social Care, responding to Jeremy Hunt’s comments about social media companies responsibilities on sexting and teenage mental health, said:

“It is important that tech and mobile phone companies join the fight on cyber-bullying and the harassment and abuse linked to sexting. But it’s the Tories that are failing young people on issues of suicide and self-harm by overseeing cuts to vital mental health services.

“Jeremy Hunt has refused to ring-fence mental health spending for young people, meaning commissioners don’t prioritise it and vital frontline services suffer. In some areas, commissioners are spending as little as £2 per child per year on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.”

“This variation in young people’s funding has been called a “national scandal” and it is a scandal that Jeremy Hunt ought to be dealing with.”