Jeremy Hunt has finally hit back and said he wants to ‘get to the bottom’ of his Twitter confrontation with Ralf Little after the actor accused the health secretary of lying about his efforts to challenge mental health.
In a series of 26 tweets, Mr Hunt sent the ‘funny bloke’ actor, 37, best known for his appearance in the Royle Family, links he claims prove he has increased NHS mental health staff in recent years.
Mr Hunt finishes the thread disputing Little’s claims he ‘knowingly lied’ over his self-professed ‘biggest expansion of mental health provision in Europe’ asking the actor, who has yet to reply, for proof.
He also praises any Twitter readers for having the ‘endurance and resilience’ to read the more than 20 tweets, saying he is not as witty as Little, but he felt compelled to ‘put the record straight’, before adding he will not be commenting on the issue on social media again.
Last Monday, Little took down Mr Hunt in 42 tweets – after he challenged the actor to a ‘double-dare’.
Little accused Hunt of lying on Twitter about claims he masterminded the ‘biggest expansion of mental health provision in Europe’ on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
The 37-year-old actor then sent a public tweet to the Tory: ‘If I’m wrong, sue me. I double dare you.’ It sparked a week-long war of words.
Hunt, MP for South West Surrey, eventually hit back at the accusation and provided a range of statistics backing his claim up to dismiss Little’s scathing remark – and double-dared the actor to retaliate.
Ralf Little (right), 37, accused Jeremy Hunt (left) of lying on Twitter about claims that he masterminded the ‘biggest expansion of mental health provision in Europe’
Little then responded after carefully fact-checking Hunt’s disputed figures because he is ‘never one to resist a challenge’.
In a series of 42 tweets, he exposed the truth behind Hunt’s figures – and mocked his ability to use unverified statistics to his advantage.
He jokingly wrote under the hashtag ‘quadrupleOscarwinner’: ‘I don’t blame you – if no-one kept a record of Oscar winners, I’d be telling everyone I’ve got four.’
Thousands of Twitter users, including psychologists and mental healthcare workers, praised Little’s ‘destructive’ takedown and issued a range of memes mocking Hunt.
Read Jeremy Hunt’s 26 rebuttal tweets for yourself below
Rebuttal: Hunt was determined to ‘get to the bottom of this issue’ in his 26-tweet rant in response to actor Ralf Little’s 42-tweet take down posted last Monday
He wrote: ‘Now I know you are a funny bloke and in politics a lot of insults are traded but the question is can you back up what is a very strong claim?’
Hunt added: ‘Parity of esteem for mental health became law in 2012, so here are the tables that show the 4,300 increase in staff at mental health trusts since 2013…’
He continued: ‘…more than 2,000 of which are fully disqualified (e.g. not the reduction of 167 in the fullfact piece you linked)’
His next tweet read: ‘And here’s how we get the increase in talking therapies staff of over 2000, some of which will overlap with the trust figure because some IAPT services are provided by trusts (although many aren’t)…’
Tweet 6: Hunt then linked the data sets that he used to back up his claims made on the Andrew Marr show
Tweet 7: ‘@ralflittle you pointed out that mental health nurses have gone down. This is correct, even though overall numbers working in mental health have gone up. Why? Because post Mid Staffs we realised…’
He continued: ‘… there were too many hospital wards with dangerously low staffing so in the last five years have increased hospital nursing staff by almost 13,000. Whilst this has been good for hosps, it has been challenging for MH’
He then wrote: ‘So to fill the gap we now have 8,000 MH nurses in training and have this Sept announced an increase in nurse training places overall by 25%’
He conceded a little in tweet 10: ‘You are correct that I did misread a briefing and tell the House of Commons that there was a 30,000 increase in mental health staff when I should have said a 30,000 increase in NHS clinical staff including in mental health…’
Hunt then makes a correction: ‘… so I have corrected the record. But 12,700 more doctors and 10,600 more nurses on our wards since 2010, including 4,300 more MH staff since 2013 isn’t a bad thing surely?’
He added: ‘But ‘more’ mental health staff does NOT mean “enough” staff and still too many patients wait too long. That’s why we published plans in July for an additional 21,000 posts’
He continues: ‘My biggest area of concern is actually children and young people, because half od all conditions become established before the age of 14. So we will shortly be publishing a green paper on children and young people’s mental health to address this’
He preemptively answers an imminent question: ‘What about the dosh? Extra staff cost money so this is what the data shows last year alone spending on mental health went up by £575m’
He continued: ‘…with CCGs increasing spend by 6.3% vs an overall increase of 3.7% in their funding – in other words spending up both in absolute terms and as a proportion of NHS spend’
Tweet 16 read: ‘This has delivered some notable improvement sin mental health in the last 7 years including the introduction of waiting times standards for psychosis and talking therapies for the first time anywhere in the world (with standards for eating disorders to follow)’
He then boasted: ‘The New York Times praised the expansion of talking therapies as “the world’s most ambitious effort to treat depression, anxiety and other common mental illnesses”‘
He then said: ‘We have also seen significant improvements in crisis care including the roll-out of liaison psychiatry to over 90% of A&Es, of which half are 24/7. This may have contributed to a 6% fall in suicide rates’
He continued: ‘But there is still MUCH more to do. In fact we are only two years in to a five year plan that will see us treating a million more people by 2020/21 compared to when we started. Here’s the plan’
Tweet 20: Hunt then reminds his followers of the Twitter accusations against him by Ralf by retweeting one
Tweet 21 read: ‘Perhaps you can see from the facts above why both I and the NHS England Chief Exec DO believe this is the biggest expansion of mental health provision in Europe…’
Tweet 22: He then posted another screenshot of Simon Stevens to back up his claim
Tweet 23 circles back to Ralf Little’s accusations: ‘There may be a European country with bigger expansion plans but I have yet to find it. I am sure I don’t get everything right but on the basis of evidence no reasonable person could describe the claim as “knowingly lying”‘
He then tries to strike a deal: ‘So let’s do a deal: you provide me with evidence that I was – as you claim – deliberately seeking to mislead the public about mental health in my Marr interview & I will happily meet you, factcheckers and all’
Hunt tries to end the thread with a joke: ‘Frankly anyone who has got this far in the thread deserves a medal for endurance and resilience not least because I am nothing like as witty as @ralflittle’
He promised at this would be his final tweet on the issue: ‘… I hope you understand that in the rough and tumble of Twitter sometimes we have to put the record straight! I therefore apologis for this interminable long threat and promise this will be my final tweet on the issue’
The heated exchange had been building up for some time, following Hunt’s House of Commons debate where he used skewed figures.
He then appeared on the Marr Show at the end of last month, where he made the controversial claim about helping the NHS to expand its mental health provision.
Little tweeted him almost immediately after his appearance on the show, for which he was ridiculed across social media.
However, it took 10 days for Hunt to respond to Little’s initial tweet. The actor then fired off his series of messages a few days later.
Hunt promised earlier this year to employ 21,000 more people in mental health by 2021 – but experts warn much more is needed.
He said the aim was to treat an extra one million people over the next four years under one of the biggest boosts to mental care in Europe.
Hunt promised mental and physical health services will be integrated as part of a £1.3 billion drive to provide services seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Campaigners have long argued mental health in the UK is woefully underfunded – and warn psychological conditions are not treated as seriously as physical ones.
And inspectors warned in July that thousands of mental health patients are being treated in unsafe hospital units.
Two in five mental health services inspected in the last three years have not met safety requirements, the Care Quality Commission said.
Thousands of Twitter users, including psychologists and mental healthcare workers, praised Little’s ‘destructive’ takedown and issued a range of memes mocking Hunt
Little tweeted: ‘This is what it looks like when a man goes on TV and knowingly lies to the public. If I’m wrong @jeremy_hunt, sue me. I double dare you’
![Hunt responded: '4,300 more employed by mental health trusts, 2,700 more employed in talking therapies, 1,400 more people treated every day since 2010. Isn't it ur job 2 find a major European country that's done better and faster rather than make assertions you can't support? I double dare you [sic]'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/11/17/10/46710D9D00000578-5092367-image-m-31_1510915769286.jpg)
Hunt responded: ‘4,300 more employed by mental health trusts, 2,700 more employed in talking therapies, 1,400 more people treated every day since 2010. Isn’t it ur job 2 find a major European country that’s done better and faster rather than make assertions you can’t support? I double dare you [sic]’
Little said: ‘So if statistics and facts aren’t your thing and you only follow me for the silly jokes – look away now. But if you care about accountability and the NHS, read and RT this THREAD written in reply to @jeremy_hunt’