𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

In the not so distant past, I unexpectedly ran into my dear friend Matthew Parris. That moment brought back the memory of a night that changed — and saved — my life. On 20 May 1987, the night before I was due to plead guilty at Bow Street Magistrates Court under an unjust law that criminalised men simply for being homosexual, I was at the lowest point of despair. Facing the obliteration of a parliamentary career I cherished, I decided I could not face another day.

I prepared to take my own life with a bottle of sleeping pills. Then the telephone rang. It was Matthew, insisting I join a small supper he was hosting. His kindness, and the warmth of friends gathered around a kitchen table, pulled me back from the brink. I survived the hearing the next day — receiving the very fine predicted over supper, £1,450 — and more importantly, I survived to live the life I still value today.

The charges that ended my career are no longer crimes. Under the ‘Alan Turing Law’, I can now apply to have my record expunged, as can thousands of men who were once prosecuted simply because of their sexuality.

But the legal system and a vindictive media inflicted deep wounds. In my case, Robert Maxwell weaponised his newspapers to destroy me for political revenge. I share this not seeking sympathy, but to highlight a painful truth: men often suffer in silence, crushed by injustices that society would rather not confront.

Today, suicide remains the leading cause of death for men under 50. Men are disproportionately represented in addiction, homelessness and imprisonment.

They take their own lives more frequently, are far less likely to seek help, and are still more likely to be falsely accused of sexual crimes, as demonstrated by the appalling case of Eleanor Williams.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men in the UK, and most violence is inflicted by men against other men. I have personally faced four of these five challenges — including undergoing surgery for prostate cancer shortly before standing in Newcastle Crown Court to defend myself against Carl Beech’s grotesque and invented allegations of child murder and sexual abuse.

For generations, men have been conditioned to remain stoic, silent and strong. But silence is killing them. That is why the Government’s announcement of the first ever Men’s Health Strategy is a landmark moment and a welcome acknowledgement that men and boys face specific and urgent challenges.

The plan aims to tackle the physical and mental health pressures affecting men every day by working with football clubs and NHS trusts to expand suicide prevention training and support; promoting NHS Talking Therapies through the powerful channels of elite sport; investing millions in targeted suicide prevention for middle-aged men; expanding mental health support in schools for hundreds of thousands more pupils; launching home testing for prostate cancer via the NHS App from 2027; training NHS staff with new men’s health learning modules; and piloting workplace health schemes in male-dominated industries.

It will also support community health programmes and trial interventions targeting drug and alcohol-related deaths. These steps are significant and long overdue, but they are only the beginning of what is needed.

For 28 years, we have had a Minister for Women, and for 24 years, a Minister for Children. Yet no one in government has responsibility for addressing the growing crisis facing men — a crisis marked by early death, despair and silence.

I say with confidence, and with the authority of both personal and political experience: men need an advocate in government. No man should suffer cancer in silence. No father should face family courts that feel weighted against him.

No innocent man should be destroyed by false allegations without support or recourse. No young man should feel so hopeless that he chooses death rather than life.

Sir Keir Starmer could appoint a Minister for Men tomorrow. The time for change is now. Not in another decade, not after more reports and inquiries, not after we have buried more sons, brothers, partners and friends who felt they had nowhere to turn.

For all the men who never received the phone call that saved me, we must act. A Minister for Men is not a matter of ideology. It is a matter of urgency, fairness and humanity.