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Universal Credit will send suicides soaring, Labour's party chairman claimed today in a damning letter to Theresa May.

Ian Lavery warned the government will have "blood on their hands" if they do not halt the "vicious" rollout of the six-in-one benefit.

The MP for Wansbeck, Northumberland, wrote to the Prime Minister on World Mental Health Day weeks before UC is rolled out to new claimants in his local Jobcentre.

He wrote: "I firmly believe, having experienced the desperation of many people in my own constituency that this introduction of Universal Credit will have a devastating impact on many British Citizens whom the Government has a duty to protect.

"This rollout will lead to increased suicides and the unnecessary deaths of yet more people who have been forced into desperation by the welfare reforms of the past 8 years.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

"I ask you to look at this situation urgently and do all you can to avoid implementing such an ill-thought out and damaging policy simply because of an ideological belief."

Speaking as he sent the letter he added: "If the government continues to push forward this nonsensical and vicious agenda, they will have blood on their hands.”

It comes two months after a grieving daughter claimed the pressures UC put on her father contributed to his suicide.

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Leann Bailey said her father Brian, 59, was left in "floods of tears" and "overwhelmed" after moving on to the new system, before taking his own life on July 17.

At the time the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said: "Suicide is a very complex issue. Our staff are trained to identify and support vulnerable people and can refer them to specialist organisations for help."