Jim Shannon

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I want to say a big thank you to the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) for setting the scene incredibly well. He and I are often in debates together. This time, he leads and I follow; it is usually the other way round. I thank him for the information that he shared. We always try to be careful in our focus, but this is really important. He mentioned a couple of things I will refer to in Northern Ireland that I believe are critical. I am pleased to see the Minister in her place. I know that she has been to Northern Ireland on a couple of occasions and has had a chance to interact with the relevant Minister. That will be one of my asks of her, in relation to how we move forward. I stand in support of this proposal. I want to take this opportunity to represent the men and young boys back home—I represent everybody back home, but this debate is focused on a Minister for men and boys. I wish to see everyone treated equally: I want to make it clear that my support for this proposal does not in any way diminish or overlook the challenges faced by women and girls, as the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth also made clear. It is almost like we are always trying to excuse ourselves, but we just want to make sure that everybody understands where we are coming from. However, it is important to acknowledge the different circumstances, and I am pleased that we can use this debate to do just that. I have often highlighted the statistics back home in relation to the reported underachievement of working-class Protestant men in Northern Ireland. In my constituency of Strangford and the neighbouring constituency of Belfast East, their underachievement is quite significant. Data for 2018-19 showed that just shy of 38% of Protestant working-class boys eligible for free school meals achieved the benchmark of five GCSEs, compared with 46.7% of Catholic boys. It is an issue. I highlighted it in my previous jobs at the Assembly and at Ards and North Down borough council—Ards borough council, as it was then. Dundonald high school, Movilla high school and Glastry college, where I used to be on the board of governors, are examples of schools that have taken direct action to try to address the issues. Some people will not have the ability—I say this very carefully—to achieve educational standards. Let us be honest: some people are quite happy to go and work on the farm or work in their dad’s business. That is what some of the young boys round my way have done. They will achieve; they will not fall shy of achieving. It will just be a different type of achievement. But in this day and age, educational standards are so important, and we have to encourage those who do not do that to get involved. The King’s Trust does fantastic work back home and is involved with the regional colleges. We see advantages from that, but we still have a stubbornly high number of young Protestant males who underachieve, and it indicates a clear gap associated with community background and disadvantage. These patterns have been noted over many years. Bodies such as the Community Relations Council and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland have highlighted the underachievement of Protestant working-class boys as a persistent issue that has not significantly improved. In the meetings that the Minister has had with the Education Minister back home, was there a discussion of how, collectively and together, we can share ideas and do things better? I am thankful for the Minister taking an interest and visiting Northern Ireland: it shows that she is a lady who wants to bring about change, and I appreciate that. The former Education Minister Robert Halfon was very effective at addressing this issue here in this Chamber, on the mainland; I remember some of his engagement ideas. Has the Minister had the opportunity to see some of his good work? The issue is directly connected to the case for a Minister for men and boys. Decisive action is needed to address the stats, understand the underlying causes and implement measures to improve outcomes. I also want to discuss a very important topic in relation to men’s health in Northern Ireland. It is the very same issue that the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth mentioned. In 2023, 221 deaths by suicide were registered in Northern Ireland, of which 77% were males: men make up most of the deaths by suicide. I remember that when I became an MP in 2010, we had had a spate of suicides in Ballynahinch. It shows how society is not coping with things: there were half a dozen young boys from Ballynahinch. Mairisine Stanfield, a minister of the Presbyterian Church, started a hub in Ballynahinch and the whole community came together collectively and tried to address that. Similar things are happening elsewhere. Suicide remains the leading cause of death for males under 50 in Northern Ireland, so it is not always young people, but Northern Ireland spends less per person on mental health than any other UK nation, despite the high need. I will keep to my time, Mr Twigg, as you asked. Appointing a dedicated Minister for men and boys would be a vital step towards tackling the mental health crisis affecting men across Northern Ireland. I ask the Minister again how we can work better to address that. Young men, particularly those from Protestant communities, face high rates of underachievement, social isolation and pressures that often go unnoticed. A Minister focused on their needs could co-ordinate targeted support, break down the stigma and ensure that their voices are heard in policy decisions. This is about improving and saving lives. I ask that we do all we can to achieve that in the near future. I will make one final comment. Sometimes, in a crowd of people, there is one person who laughs the loudest and is the most outgoing of all. You might say to yourself, “You know something? That guy’s got no problems.” But when he goes home, that is when the problems start: as my mother used to say, he would hang his fiddle on the door. On the outside he is bright and breezy, but when he goes home he just disappears into his shell. That is why young men need to be helped. I thank the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth again for enabling us to speak about the issue. I look forward to hearing from the Minister and from other hon. Members.