ONE of Bury’s MP has urged the Government to protect funding for mental health services.

During a debate in the House of Commons on Monday, Ivan Lewis said that mental health services bear the brunt of NHS cuts and that funding should be ring-fenced.

His comments came as Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, told MPs that up to a third of patients do not need to be seen in A&E, after claims by the Red Cross that the NHS is in the middle of a “humanitarian crisis”.

Mr Lewis, the MP for Bury South, said: “Let me point out that when the NHS makes cuts, the services that suffer time and again are the so-called Cinderella services: mental health services.

“The only way to prevent that is to ring-fence the funds and force local commissioners to demonstrate to local populations that the extra money is genuinely being spent on improving mental health services.

“Finally, as we heard from my hon. Friend Lucy Powell, when local authority services are cut to the bone, they can only provide statutory services and all the preventive services go—never mind the cuts in social care.

“What is preventing the Secretary of State from commissioning an all-party group to seek a sustainable, long-term funding model for social care?

Mr Hunt replied: “The Prime Minister has said that we need to find a long-term solution to the problem of funding social care, and that work is ongoing. We recognise the urgency of the situation.

“As for the evidence of whether mental health services are reaching the frontline, we need to establish whether more money is being spent on mental health provision than in previous years, and, as I said earlier, about £1 billion more is being spent than was being spent two years ago.”

Labour accused Mr Hunt of living in “la la land” over the pressures faced by A&E departments.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “I know La La Land did well at the Golden Globes last night - I didn’t realise the Secretary of State was living there. Perhaps that’s where he has been all weekend.

“Can he now confirm that the NHS is facing a winter crisis and the blame for this lies at the door of Number 10 Downing Street?

“Does the Secretary of State agree it was a monumental error to ignore the pleas for extra support for social care in the Autumn Statement a few weeks ago?

“Will he now support calls to bring forward the extra £700 million allocated for 2019? Will he bring that forward now to help social care?”