Sajid Javid, a former cabinet minister, said today that he still questions if “there’s anything I could have done” to save his brother’s life.
The oldest brother of the former health secretary, Tariq, committed suicide in 2018, and the former health secretary said that his family “simply didn’t see it coming.”
Mr. Javid is urging the government to take more effort to lower the suicide rate, which he described as still being “stubbornly high” in the UK.
In July 2018, a wealthy hotel room containing the body of Tariq Javid, the head of a grocery group, was discovered 10 minutes from his West Sussex home.
One of five brothers born in Pakistan’s Punjab who immigrated to the UK in the 1960s, Mr. Javid discussed his lingering shock over his brother’s death in a radio interview for World Mental Health Day.
He also criticized the government for delaying the implementation of new internet safety regulations.
Former home secretary and chancellor Mr. Javid said that there is a “big vacuum” in internet policing of information that encourages suicide.
The Conservative MP called for a crackdown on websites that promote suicide and self-harm, citing the tragic death of schoolgirl Molly Russell.
Speaking on the tragedy in his own family to BBC Radio 4’s Today program, he said: “It was four years ago that (Tariq) took his own life.
We in the family didn’t see it coming at all, none of us did. He showed there one day and left the next.
“I still often wonder whether there was anything I could have done to save his life, especially on his birthday and other memorable family occasions that I remember with my brothers.
“Sadly, he’s gone.”
Mr. Javid said that his family’s experience was “far from uncommon,” noting that there are, on average, 5,000 suicides in England each year.
More has to be done, he said, since the rate in the UK has remained persistently high.
The politician urged anybody who was contemplating suicide or concerned about a friend to “speak to someone,” such as a relative, a coworker, a close friend, or phone Samaritans at 116 123.
We just didn’t anticipate it since he didn’t discuss it with anybody, Mr. Javid said of his brother’s death.
Mr. Javid described how Asian community members urged him not to discuss Tariq’s suicide.
He said that there is “greater shame” associated with suicide in “certain societies,” but he continued, “It is a concern generally in any scenario – especially for men.” Men commit suicide at a rate of 75%.
In a groundbreaking decision last month, a senior coroner determined that Molly Russell passed away as a result of the “negative impacts of internet postings.”
The 14-year-old, from the northwestern London borough of Harrow, committed suicide in November 2017.
Mr. Javid criticized the government’s Online Safety Bill, which tries to address dangerous digital information, for being delayed in introducing new laws.
According to the existing suicide statute, it is illegal to “urge or instigate” someone to commit suicide.
However, there is a huge gap in the coverage of digital communication.
“That has to happen, but the Government’s taking too long,” one person said in reference to the coroner’s findings on the terrible death of Molly Russell, which was released just last week.
Jeremy Wright, the culture secretary, and I released the white paper on internet damage when I was the home secretary, and now, four years later, nothing has changed.
Other nations have done this, and nothing negative has occurred. For four years.