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Jo Cox commission calls for 'minister for loneliness'

The UK should have a 'minister for loneliness', according to a commission established by MP Jo Cox before she was stabbed to death.

The final report of the Jo Cox Loneliness Commission calls for a national strategy for loneliness across all ages to tackle what it describes as "an urgent crisis".

:: Jo Cox's sister on tackling loneliness

Published today in Mrs Cox's former constituency of Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire, the report says: "Tackling loneliness is a generational challenge that can only be met by concerted action by everyone. Governments, employers, businesses, civil society organisations, families, communities and individuals all have a role to play."

The report calls for a national strategy on loneliness and a minister who's responsible.

Mrs Cox's sister, Kim Leadbeater, is helping to launch the report. She said it was tough to be involved in something that was one of her sister's last initiatives but felt it went to the heart of what her sister stood for.

She told Sky News: "Everything that Jo believed in is coming together with the launch of this report but she would have said exactly as I have said, 'Right, what are we going to do about it? Never mind about a piece of paper with a load of words on it, what action are we going to take and what's the way forward?'"

The report concludes:

:: Over 9 million adults are often or always lonely,
:: Loneliness is said to be deadlier than obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes a day,
:: Three-quarters of GPs say they see up to five patients every day who are lonely,
:: Loneliness is estimated to cost employers £2.5bn every year.

MP Seema Kennedy, who worked with Mrs Cox in setting up the commission, said: "It's getting worse because we have an ageing society, more people live on their own, there are fewer people living in households, and there's the rise of social media, which can be useful for connecting people but also means that people tend to spend a lot more time in their bedrooms on their phones."

She said that Mrs Cox made it clear that she didn't want to live in a society where there were lonely people all around her.

Ms Kennedy said: "The manifesto that we're launching is about a call to action. So we're making asks of government, we're also calling on civic leaders, business leaders, community leaders. This is something for all of us to do, we can all start a conversation with someone that we know is lonely."