How Tories trap people in a cruel cycle of poverty and ill health

‘A lack of essentials leads to poorer mental health, and this applies to all citizens, including people with learning disabilities, asylum seekers and other excluded groups.’ Photograph: EM Welch/Rex

Michael Marmot (Studying health inequalities has been my life’s work. What’s about to happen in the UK is unprecedented, 9 April) raises a grim spectre for the health of the poverty-stricken in the UK. However, the warning given in his article is not unprecedented, even if the dire consequences are.

Forty-two years ago, the Black report on inequalities in health found that there were differences in mortality rates across the social groups, with those in lower social groups suffering higher rates of mortality. It also found inequalities in access to health services, with low rates of uptake by the working classes to preventive services in particular.