UK leader tries to turn focus away from Brexit

By Busra Akin Dincer

LONDON

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a speech on social reform on Monday, marking a change from a Brexit-dominated policy agenda.

May spoke at the Charity Commission in London where she revealed a plan to tackle "hidden injustice" in British society.

In her speech, the British premier outlined her vision of “shared society” and emphasized the importance of solidarity.

“The shared society is one that doesn’t just value our individual rights but focuses rather more on the responsibilities we have to one another. It’s a society that respects the bonds that we share as a union of people and nations,” she stated.

May said injustices drives the country apart and government must tackle them. She said it means making a “significant shift” in the way that government works in Britain.

“This means a government rooted not in the laissez-faire liberalism that leaves people to get by on their own, but rather in a new philosophy that means government stepping up -- not just in the traditional way of providing a welfare state to support the most vulnerable, as vital as that will always be,” she said and added:

“But actually in going further to help those who have been ignored by government for too long because they don’t fall into the income bracket that makes them qualify for welfare support.”

In her speech she has also announced a comprehensive package of measures to transform mental health support in the country’s schools.

“What I am announcing are the first steps in our plan to transform the way we deal with mental illness in this country at every stage of a person’s life: not in our hospitals, but in our classrooms, at work and in our communities,” she stated.

Theresa May has been criticized for not addressing social issues, and of being consumed by topics related to the Brexit process.

Monday’s speech is seen as the first of series of domestic policy announcements by the prime minister, laying out her government’s plans for the country other than leaving the EU.