An attempt by Nadine Dorries to block a legal inquiry into thousands of deaths from mental illness has cost even more lives, a grieving mother has told an inquiry.
Melanie Leahy spent years campaigning for a public inquiry into the death of her son Matthew and hundreds of others who were failed by Essex’s mental health services. It finally began last week after a long battle with ministers, including Dorries when she was Health Minister in the previous government.
Leahy said in Chelmsford on Tuesday, during a statement into the death of her 20-year-old son in 2012, that she was “shocked to her core” when she discovered earlier this month that Dorries had sent WhatsApp messages in 2020 describing how she was “singling out” families as part of an attempt to block their calls for a full public inquiry.
In the messages shown to the investigation last week after they were reported in the Daily Telegraph, Dorries told then Health Secretary Matt Hancock, “we’re not going to go there” regarding such calls. Referring to Leahy, Dorries said: “I’m picking out the other families and I’m going to speak to them one by one to get them on side to isolate her.”
An independent inquiry was set up in 2021, but it was not formally established until 2023 after many potential witnesses ignored requests to help. Last week, new chair Kate Lampard said the inquiry would look into “significantly more” than 2,000 deaths from mental illness between 2000 and 2023.
Leahy said: “It makes me sick to think of an elected politician pitting grieving families against each other.
“This has only led to even more serious concerns, this time about the transparency of my own government. This felt like nothing less than a frontal stab in the heart.”
Leahy, who will make a new impact statement on Wednesday over the subsequent death of her partner, added: “It devastates me every time I think of the additional lives that have been lost, my late partner being one of them … and other patients who have suffered harm in the three-year delay that (Dorries’) decision to only allow an independent inquiry will have caused.”
She said the last eight days of her son’s life, in the care of the mental health service, now run by the Essex Partnership University NHS Trust, were “hell on earth”.
Leahy said he was “alone, malnourished, overmedicated, scared, bleeding, bruised, raped, injected multiple times, ignored and afraid.”
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A jury found during an inquest that there were multiple failings and missed opportunities in his care, she told the inquest.
Leahy said: “I hope his death will have a positive impact on the world and that I will be told the truth about how and why he died when he should have been safe. I hope that there will be justice and accountability and that necessary change will be made for others who, like me, sought services when they needed safe, compassionate care for their loved ones.”
In a statement last week, Dorries said: “I fought for that inquiry to be held. I am proud of my record as Health Minister… I have spoken to all parents individually, in accordance with their own wishes.”