Podcast #28: MPs and mental health

Parliament has been up and running for centuries, but incredibly it's taken until now for any politician to be brave enough to stand up in the Commons and admit they've got a mental health problem.

That was exactly what four MPs did in a debate last week. So we spoke to one of them, Charles Walker, about his problems with obsessive compulsive disorder. He obviously felt like a huge weight had been taken off his shoulders. Confronting this sort of issue takes a lot of courage, but it looks like being the right decision for the Broxbourne MP.

His candour comes at a good time. For another Tory, Gavin Barwell, is pushing a private member's bill which could end the practice of forcing MPs out of parliament if they are sectioned. This is the last form of discrimination, Barwell argues. His bill would also allow those who have been sectioned to sit on juries and company boards.