Luciana Berger MP, Labour’s Shadow Public Health Minister, responding to the ‘Manifesto for Better Mental Health’ published by mental health charities, said:

“Ed Miliband has committed to making mental health a priority for the next Labour Government. We are putting mental health at the heart of our vision for an integrated health and social care system to ensure that it gets the focus and attention it so desperately needs.

“David Cameron has well and truly broken his promise to value mental and physical health equally. Under the Tories, our mental health services have gone drastically downhill. Funding has been squeezed, the number of specialist doctors and nurses has dropped and more and more vulnerable people are not getting the help that they need.

“This manifesto shows the scale of the challenge facing our mental health services and the extent of the overhaul needed to put them right.”