Britain appoints minister for loneliness to continue work of murdered politician Jo Cox
Updated
Britain has appointed a minister for loneliness to take forward the work of murdered politician Jo Cox and tackle the isolation felt by more than one in 10 people in the UK.
Key points:
- Minister will tackle the isolation felt by more than one in 10 people in the UK
- Jo Cox set up a Commission on Loneliness shortly before her death in 2016
- A Nazi Germany-obsessed British man murdered Ms Cox a week before Brexit vote
Sports Minister Tracey Crouch will take on the new role, in addition to her existing job, and develop a strategy to address the problem, which research has linked with dementia, early mortality and high blood pressure.
"We should all do everything we can to see that, in Jo's memory, we bring an end to the acceptance of loneliness for good," British Prime Minister Theresa May said.
"For far too many people, loneliness is the sad reality of modern life."
Ms Cox was murdered by a right-wing extremist in 2016, after being in parliament for little more than a year.
The Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, which the 41-year-old politician set up shortly before her death, had called for a minister to be appointed to lead action on the issue.
"Jo would be over the moon," her husband, Brendan Cox tweeted.
The majority of people over 75 live alone and about 200,000 older people in the UK have not had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month, according to government data.
Most doctors in Britain see between one and five patients a day who have come mainly because they are lonely, according to the Campaign to End Loneliness, a network tackling the health threat isolation poses to the elderly.
Reuters
Topics: world-politics, murder-and-manslaughter, aged-care, united-kingdom
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