Sir Tony Blair downplays the UK mental health crisis

Sir Tony Blair is one of the most polarising and influential figures in modern British history. While there is definitely no shortage of written words concerning his time as Prime Minister and his decisions since, I felt somewhat compelled to write about his comments regarding mental health on a podcast last week.

In an episode of Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future released a week ago, Blair caused controversy after suggesting that people are self-diagnosing mental health issues rather than facing up to the tribulations everybody faces in their lives. Before dissecting his viewpoint, it is worth alluding to the full quote.

Jimmy McLoughlin - OBE and podcast host, asked the former PM why the UK seems to be struggling with higher unemployment after the Covid pandemic more than other European countries.

In response, Blair said: “I think we have become very, very focused on mental health and with people self-diagnosing. I think we need a proper conversation about that. We're spending vastly more on mental health now than we did a few years ago, and it's hard to see what the objective reasons for that are.”

He continued: “Life has its ups and downs, and everybody experiences those. And you've got to be careful of encouraging people to think they've got some sort of condition other than simply confronting the challenges of life.”

He somewhat patronisingly added that we need to help people understand that problems are going to exist for everybody, and we should be careful in translating those problems into mental health conditions.

As you would expect, this quote gained significant media attention – something Blair has always been astute at – with many charities, advocates, UK bodies and media organisations offering up their response.

Support for the PM came most notably from The Sun and The Telegraph. Writing for the former, Jane Moore wrote an article titled: “Blair’s right, we, must stop treating life’s ups & downs as mental health problems – it’s crippling the NHS.”

The topic of the NHS will be touched on later, but Moore essentially makes the assertion that younger generations conflate anxiety with general worry, which seems to be the prevailing party line from those who find themselves agreeing with the former PM. Celia Walden, writing for the Telegraph, conveyed the same message using different verbiage when she wrote a piece titled: “The mental health industry rewards a cult of victimhood.”

In the article, Walden says the culture of victimhood that “has so many yearning to have a medical condition” to prevent the undermining of true mental conditions and the progress made on busting taboos.

There were of course, many who spoke out against Blair’s comments. Non-profit mental health service provider Everyturn, offered a response to the former PM’s query as to why we are spending more on mental health. According to Everyturn, 24% of people in Britain often struggle to make ends meet; people living in the lowest 20% income bracket are 2-3 times more likely to develop mental health conditions; 6 out of every 10 people in Britain have made cuts to their spending because of cost-of-living pressures; a third of adults are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage and people receiving housing benefits are more than twice as likely to have a mental health condition.

Alongside Everyturn, mental health charity Mind penned an open letter to Blair reaffirming his desire for a “proper conversation” on the issue. Importantly, the charity said that in order to progress forward, starting from a point of understanding is crucial. They wanted Blair to understand that the increasing welfare bill is a symptom of a national mental health crisis, not the cause.

Mind said: “We must recognise the social factors that are driving up mental illness. For example, life’s ‘ups and downs’ are harder to brush off when you’re living in poverty.” Hard to disagree there.

Another interesting response came from national charity Bipolar UK, who said that the comments coming from a high-profile figure like Blair risk undermining the needs of those living with serious mental illnesses. Perhaps they foresaw the articles from the Sun, Telegraph et al and knew there would be a bombardment of conversation surrounding the issue from people who aren’t necessarily the most informed on the topic – a rarity I admit.

According to Bipolar UK, the increased demand for mental support is not due to over-self-diagnosis or over-medicalisation, it is due to a systemic failure to identify and treat serious conditions early enough, leaving many living with an undiagnosed mental health condition. They added that people with bipolar wait over nine years on average before receiving a correct diagnosis, with bipolar-related suicides costing the country hundreds of millions annually.

“For these people, dismissive rhetoric about the ‘ups and downs’ of mental health risks further delays in diagnosis and care.”

You may have expected charities like Mind and others to attack Blair’s comments. When I saw the headline and listened to the podcast, I expected there to be both support and disdain for what he had to say. However, I did not expect him to receive criticism from Alastair Campbell. The pair worked closely together from 1994 to 2003, and Campbell has consistently defended Blair on a wide array of issues far too long to list in this blog for the previous 20 years.

Even so, Campbell, who has been vocal about his history of depression and has written a book on the issue, admitted that Blair fundamentally misunderstood the discourse. Campbell said that he didn’t like for former PM’s comments, and that it is an issue they have discussed before. The former director for Downing Street communications said he told Blair that he didn’t understand mental health issues when he released an autobiography in 2010. It seems the problem persists 15 years later. This is noteworthy as even Campbell admits it is “very, very rare” for him to criticise his former boss.

Campbell made the comments on a podcast episode with Rory Stewart, former MP. Stewart also alluded other reasons for the increase in unemployment since Covid, such as the undignified, long hours and underpaid work on offer in the UK often compares unfavorably to other countries in Europe. As someone who recruits people to work all over Europe I can attest that the UK does not lead the market in working conditions or pay, especially in my field.

In terms of what Blair said, there are theoretical truths to his point. In theory it is possible to self-diagnose a mental health condition and receive benefit pay. However, The Big Issue point out that this is easier said than done.

They say: “Although people can get disability benefits without a medical diagnosis, extensive evidence is needed to prove how your condition impacts your everyday life. People with mental and physical health conditions have described to the Big Issue the “trauma” they have faced in attempting to get support from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – and being refused that support. Hundreds of people have written to us to share similar experiences.”

People find ways to exploit just about every single public funding system in the world – it is never going to stop. However, the ease with which Blair is suggesting this is done is unfounded. There are over 2 million people in the UK currently on mental health service waiting lists. While mental health accounts for 20% of all health issues, it only receives 10% of NHS funding.

Lastly – the issue of the NHS. While it does face unprecedented challenges at this time, recent research suggests that Tony Blair’s premiership still precipitates the woes.  

Analysis conducted in December 2024 by We Own It – an organisation which campaigns against privatisation of public services, shows that Blair’s private finance deals still significantly affect the NHS today. They say that private finance initiative (PFI) deals signed off by New Labour continue to “cripple” the NHS, hampering its efforts to treat more patients.

According to the research: “NHS Trusts in England with current PFI debt will have paid back on average almost eight times the initial PFI capital put into their trusts, with Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust having the worst payback ratio at 27 times what was borrowed.”

They added: “On the average PFI project, NHS trusts have already paid back over three and half times what was borrowed, but they still owe £605 million on average and 78 out of the 80 NHS trusts with current PFI debt have already paid off the initial capital investment.”

I believe Blair to be one of the more serious operators in British politics, especially of the last 25 years, however on this issue he is wrong. He is in no position to lecture about mental health when his former public mouthpiece clearly has no faith in his opinion on the issue. The NHS has no shortage of problems, but recent analysis suggests some of those problems are linked to Blair’s government. I think he missed the mark on this one and I would hope that high-profile figures continue to advocate for better mental health prevention and funding.