Jeremy Hunt taken to task by actor Ralf Little over NHS improvement claims

Royle Family and Doctor Who actor invites Health Secretary to television debate on future of the health service

The actor Ralf Little has torn into statistics provided by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt which appeared to show improvements in the National Health Service.

The clash on Twitter followed the Health Secretary’s claim on the Andrew Marr show that he has been responsible for the NHS is seeing “the biggest expansion of mental health provision in Europe”.

Afterwards, Little accused Mr Hunt of “lying to the public”, and invited the Tory MP to sue him if he was wrong.

Mr Hunt’s claim at the end of October, came days after he was forced to admit making a false claim in Parliament earlier that month in which he said the NHS has 30,000 more people working in mental health than when Labour left office.

It emerged that he had inflated the actual number by around 43 times.

A week after Little addressed Mr Hunt, the Health Secretary hit back with a tweet proclaiming other statistical improvements in the NHS.

Mr Hunt said there were “4,300 more employed by mental health trusts, 2,700 more employed in talking therapies, 1400 more people treated every day since 2010.”

The tweet prompted Little to investigate each figure one by one, with the actor noting that there were now 6,000 fewer mental health nurses than in 2010, and 170 fewer fully trained psychiatrists.

He also quotes fact-checking charity Full Fact, and says the 1,400 figure for the increase in people being treated which Mr Hunt gave has also been proved wrong.

Little even points out that Mr Hunt had under-reported the number of people employed in talking therapies, which has risen further than Mr Hunt said.

Here’s the thread in full:

Mr Hunt responded:

To which Little said that he had spent some time doing research and was ready to reply.

Mr Hunt is yet to respond.