Support promised by PM hasn’t materialised

A mental health package which was promised by prime minister Rishi Sunak to the grief-stricken classmates and teachers of Brianna Ghey is still no further forward at being implemented. 

Ghey, 16, was stabbed to death in Culcheth Linear Park, Warrington, on 11 February 2023. Two teens, a boy and a girl, are currently on trial at Manchester Crown Court charged with her murder. They deny the charge.  

In June, an agreement was reached between No. 10, the Treasury, the Department for Education and Birchwood Community High School – where Ghey attended – to cover the cost of mental health professionals working with students and staff. 

Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday (14 December), Warrington North MP Charlotte Nicols recalled the prime minister Rishi Sunak made a “personal commitment” to her in regards to the support. 

“It is now December,” she told MPs, “the trial in the national media spotlight is causing enormous welfare pressures in the school community, and the funding has still not been received because the DFE is saying that, despite the funding being approved, it cannot work out whose budget it should be taken from.” 

She added there has been “no” progress since October “despite the best efforts of the school and myself to raise it with the relevant officials”. 

In response, leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt said she will intervene in the matter as she believes the secretary of state for education, Gillian Keegan, will “want to cut through what sounds like nonsense bureaucracy and ensure that people get what they need”. 

Back in February, Sunak told Nicols she would “have what she needs from the Government”. 

The trial, which is currently in its 14th day and expected to last three weeks, has seen jurors hear that the female co-defendant – known only as Girl X – experienced “dark fantasies” after consuming “dark material” on the internet. 

This content allegedly included videos of murder and torture. 

Her co-accused – called only Boy Y – described her as “not a normal person” who enjoyed making dark jokes, such as ones about violence, murder and “dead babies”. 

On Thursday, Boy Y was questioned over language he used to refer to Ghey in private messages with Girl X, whereby he described her as “it”. 

Boy Y said he used that term as a “joke” with Girl X, to which to prosecution quizzed him on what the joke was: “I don’t know, it’s what I’ve learned from people at school, how they talk about people which I picked up.”

The teenager went on to say he has “insufficient knowledge” about himself to explain “why I copy what other people do”.