Suicide stats exceed BSE deaths

10 March 2000



Suicide stats exceed BSE deaths

MORE farmers are committing suicide than there are deaths from the human form of BSE, a Tory backbencher has told the House of Commons.

Christopher Gill, MP for Ludlow, said many farmers were at their “wits end” while agriculture minister Nick Brown did “nothing” to alleviate their problems, reports .

Mr Gill said: “The rising incidence of suicide among farmers now far exceeds the number of deaths caused or attributed to new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease.”

He said Mr Brown should attend a Commons debate and “account for his stewardship”.

Leader of the House of Commons, Margaret Beckett said the last debate on agriculture was in government time at Mr Browns instigation.