Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn MP has created a new ministerial post in his first shadow cabinet of minister for mental health, with Luciana Berger appointed to the role.

Berger will work on mental health issues and how they can be prioritised and best addressed by the Labour Party and in a future Labour government. 

The Cabinet-level post has no identical counterpart in the Conservative government, where it is rolled into a junior health minister post.

Berger, MP for Liverpool Wavertree, was elected to Parliament in 2010 and was previously Shadow Minister for Public Health.

“I am delighted that we have established a Shadow Cabinet position for mental health which is a matter I have long been interested in,” Corbyn said in a statement.

Corbyn attracted comment yesterday when he decided to attend a ‘family fun day’ at the Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health and substance misuse services, rather than appear on the BBC’s flagship political programme The Andrew Marr Show.