Defence secretary Penny Mordaunt was furious after aides failed to pass on a vital plea for help over post-traumatic stress disorder.
Ms Mordaunt has ordered a probe after our exclusive story last week that a military charity’s letter asking for a register of all veterans’ suicides has been snubbed a SECOND time .
The group Veterans’ United Against Suicide received a dismissive reply from the minister’s aides saying there was little to add to previous statements by Ms Mordaunt’s predecessor Gavin Williamson.
But after reading the story, angry Ms Mordaunt sent a message to the group saying: “I’m investigating this. No letter came across my desk.”
Last night a source said: “She immediately asked why she wasn’t shown the letter. She was very angry.
“She wanted to know why she was finding out that veterans were asking for her help after reading about it in the Sunday People.”
On May 21, the charity received an unsigned response stating that the Defence Secretary receives lots of letters and emails and is unable to answer them all.
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It added that the letter had been passed to the Defence People Secretariat, a Ministry of Defence department.
It said there was “little to add” to Mr Williamson’s letter eight months previously.
In the letter to Ms Mordaunt, Veterans United said that since they began to collate figures in January last year more than 100 serving and former members of the armed forces have taken their own lives.
Many of those who died had either served in Iraq or Afghanistan and were suffering from PTSD or other mental health issues.
The charity argued that until the MoD begins formally recording veterans’ deaths it is impossible to evaluate whether suicide is a problem within the ex-forces community.
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Jeff Williams, one of the charity’s founders, said yesterday: “The MoD maintains veterans’ mental health is taken seriously.
“Yet the fact that the Defence Secretary wasn’t even shown our letter suggests otherwise. We are fed up with excuses – we want action.”
A source said the Defence Secretary would be writing to the campaigner.
Last night an MoD spokesman said: “The Defence Secretary cares passionately about the wellbeing of those who have served and has introduced a number of measures to support ex-service personnel.
“This includes ringfencing £9m to support mental health and wellbeing activities for veterans, and expanding the MoD’s research on suicide to include recent service leavers.”
