Sir Keir Starmer has rejected the idea of creating a minister for men to combat some of the issues raised in the hit Netflix drama Adolescence.
Sir Keir said he was “worried” about the “crisis in masculinity” raised in the programme, which centres on a 13-year-old boy arrested for the murder of a young girl and the rise of incel culture.
The themes touched upon in the show have led to suggestions that the government introduce a minister for men to mirror the women and equalities minister that currently exists in the cabinet.
But speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, the prime minister said he did not think appointing a new minister was “the answer” to the problems affecting young boys today, including negative and harmful social media content and a lack of visible role models.
“I am worried about this; I’ve got a 16-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl,” he said.
“There’s a reason why the debate has suddenly sparked into life on this and that’s because I think a lot of parents, a lot of people who work with young people at school or elsewhere, recognise that we may have a problem with boys and young men that we need to address.”
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Sir Keir said he was more persuaded by arguments put forward by former England manger Gareth Southgate, who argued in a recent lecture that young men lacked positive role models, making them vulnerable to online influencers who promoted negative ideologies about the world and women.
“I’ve been in touch with Gareth,” the prime minister said. “I know Gareth. I thought his lecture, what he was saying, was really powerful, will have resonated with a lot of parents.
Image: Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence. Pic:Netflix
“And I do think this is something that we have to take seriously, we have to address. We can’t shrug our shoulders at it.”
Asked whether a minister for men would help, Sir Keir said: “No, I don’t think that’s the answer.
“I think it is time for listening carefully to what Gareth Southgate was saying and responding to it.
“I want to have that further discussion with him. We’ve already had a bit of a discussion about this, but I do think it’s important we pick this challenge up and see it for what it is.”
Adolescence: A hard watch – but a must-see
By Anjum Peerbacos, education reporter
As a former English teacher, I was interested to see how the show depicted schools and teachers – and their interaction with the central character.
Some elements struck me as truthful, others not so much.
“Shut up,” we hear one child yell at the teacher, Mrs Fenumore, as she’s taking the detectives to meet Jamie’s class. It made me wince, despite knowing that this does happen in schools.
In this depiction of schools, poor language was prevalent and not challenged appropriately by the adults in the situation.
As is the case in every profession, in classrooms there are good and bad teachers.
But in some cases I found the lack of knowledge and extent of ignorance from Mrs Fenumore hard to believe – and on a personal level hard to watch. How could she not know about the incel movement? It was her job to know.
For example, I remember devising lessons and assemblies specifically looking into the incel movement, which were even more pertinent when the case of murdered 33-year-old Sarah Everard was in the news.
Adolescence is a must-watch, but it is also a hard-watch for anyone that has a young person in their life.
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Stephen Graham says he wanted to bring the issue
Delivering the BBC’s annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Mr Southgate revealed how his experience of missing a penalty at Euro 96 “still haunts me today”.
And he warned that “callous” influencers online were tricking young men into thinking women and the world were against them, causing them to “withdraw” into the online world and express their emotions there rather than in “real-world communities.
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He said a “void” in their search for direction is often now being filled by some influencers who “willingly trick young men into believing that success is measured by money or dominance”.
In his interview with the BBC, Sir Keir suggested footballers and athletes could be role models for boys and young men but said there was also a need for inspirational people in communities.
Asked who the British male role models were, Sir Keir told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I always go to sport for this. Footballers, athletes, I think they are role models.
“But I also think if you actually ask a young person, they’re more likely to identify somebody who’s in their school, a teacher, or somebody who maybe is a sports coach, something like that.
“So we need to make sure that – this is something that dads do, dad would reach for a sort of sporting hero – I think children, young people, are more likely to reach someone closer to them, within their school, within their community.
“And that’s, I think, where we need to do some of the work.”
The UK has never had a minister for men but previous Conservative MPs, including former Doncaster MP Nick Fletcher, have called for one in the past to tackle high rates of suicide among men.
The position of minister for women was created by former Labour prime minister Tony Blair as a means of prioritising women’s issues across government.
Emmanuel Macron has said the UK and France have a “shared responsibility” to tackle the “burden” of illegal migration, as he urged co-operation between London and Paris ahead of a crunch summit later this week.
Addressing parliament in the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday, the French president said the UK-France summit would bring “cooperation and tangible results” regarding the small boats crisis in the Channel.
Image: King Charles III at the State Banquet for President of France Emmanuel Macron. Pic: PA
Mr Macron – who is the first European leader to make a state visit to the UK since Brexit – told the audience that while migrants’ “hope for a better life elsewhere is legitimate”, “we cannot allow our countries’ rules for taking in people to be flouted and criminal networks to cynically exploit the hopes of so many individuals with so little respect for human life”.
“France and the UK have a shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness,” he added.
Looking ahead to the UK-France summit on Thursday, he promised the “best ever cooperation” between France and the UK “to fix today what is a burden for our two countries”.
Sir Keir Starmer will hope to reach a deal with his French counterpart on a “one in, one out” migrant returns deal at the key summit on Thursday.
King Charles also addressed the delegations at a state banquet in Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening, saying the summit would “deepen our alliance and broaden our partnerships still further”.
Image: King Charles speaking at state banquet welcoming Macron.
Sitting next to President Macron, the monarch said: “Our armed forces will cooperate even more closely across the world, including to support Ukraine as we join together in leading a coalition of the willing in defence of liberty and freedom from oppression. In other words, in defence of our shared values.”
In April, British officials confirmed a pilot scheme was being considered to deport migrants who cross the English Channel in exchange for the UK accepting asylum seekers in France with legitimate claims.
The two countries have engaged in talks about a one-for-one swap, enabling undocumented asylum seekers who have reached the UK by small boat to be returned to France.
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Britain would then receive migrants from France who would have a right to be in the UK, like those who already have family settled here.
The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.
Image: President Macron greets Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle at his address to parliament in Westminster.
Elsewhere in his speech, the French president addressed Brexit, and said the UK could not “stay on the sidelines” despite its departure from the European Union.
He said European countries had to break away from economic dependence on the US and China.
“Our two countries are among the oldest sovereign nations in Europe, and sovereignty means a lot to both of us, and everything I referred to was about sovereignty, deciding for ourselves, choosing our technologies, our economy, deciding our diplomacy, and deciding the content we want to share and the ideas we want to share, and the controversies we want to share.
“Even though it is not part of the European Union, the United Kingdom cannot stay on the sidelines because defence and security, competitiveness, democracy – the very core of our identity – are connected across Europe as a continent.”
Emmanuel Macron addressing parliament in the Palace of Westminster’s Royal Gallery was a highly anticipated moment in the long history of our two nations.
That story – the conflict and a historic Anglo-French agreement that ended centuries of feuding, the Entente Cordiale – adorn the walls of this great hall.
Looming over the hundreds of MPs and peers who had gathered in the heat to hear the French president speak, hang two monumental paintings depicting British victories in the Napoleonic wars, while the glass stand in the room commemorates the 408 Lords who lost their lives fighting for Europe in two world wars.
The French president came to parliament as the first European leader to be honoured with a state visit since Brexit.
It was the first address of a French president to parliament since 2008, and Mr Macron used it to mark what he called a new era in Anglo-Franco relations.
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Sky News’ political correspondent Tamara Cohen was watching Emmanuel Macron’s speech. She highlights the president saying he wants to see tangible results on migration.
Peers and MPs cheered with delight when he confirmed France would loan the Bayeux Tapestry to the UK in the run-up to the anniversary of William the Conqueror’s birthday.
“I have to say, it took properly more years to deliver that project than all the Brexit texts,” he joked as former prime minister Theresa May watched on from the front row
From Brexit to migration, European security, to a two-state solution and the recognition of Palestine, Mr Macron did not shy away from thorny issues, as he turned the page on Brexit tensions woven through Anglo-French relations in recent years, in what one peer described to me as a “very political speech rather than just the usual warm words”.
Image: Emmanuel Macron addresses parliament
He also used this address to praise Sir Keir Starmer, sitting in the audience, for his leadership on security and Ukraine, and his commitment to the international order and alliances forged from the ashes of the Second World War. For that, he received a loud ovation from the gathered parliamentarians.
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Macron’s first-ever state visit: personal or political?
The test now for Sir Keir is whether he can turn his deft diplomatic work in recent months with Mr Macron into concrete action to give him a much-needed win on the domestic front, particularly after his torrid week on welfare.
The government hopes that France’s aim for “cooperation and tangible results” at the upcoming political summit as part of this state visit, will give Starmer a much-needed boost.
Under this plan, those crossing the Channel illegally will be sent back to France in exchange for Britain taking in an asylum seeker with a family connection in the UK.
But as I understand it, the deal is still in the balance, with some EU countries unhappy about France and the UK agreeing on a bilateral deal.