PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Remembrance and Veterans - 28 October 2024 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

I beg to move,

That this House has considered remembrance and the contribution of veterans.

This is the first time in four years that the House has held a general debate on remembrance. Back then, I responded for the Opposition. It is a huge honour for me to open this debate as Secretary of State for Defence and, in that role, to be the voice of veterans in the Cabinet. I am proud to have my ministerial team here with me, particularly the Minister for Veterans and People, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Selly Oak (Al Carns), who will wind up this debate.

Given the number of colleagues from all parts of the House who have put in to speak in this debate, I wish to keep my remarks brief, so that we can hear from others. It is striking how many colleagues on the call list, of all parties, have served in our UK armed forces; many were elected for the first time in July, and I welcome them all to this debate. That underlines the deep affinity between the House and our nation’s armed forces. Whether or not we have served, we in this House have the interests of our armed forces at heart; but we may debate, forcefully at times, the state of our armed forces and how best to use them. That matters to those who put on the uniform and accept a duty to give unlimited service to our nation, ready to do anything, at any time, anywhere, if this House and His Majesty’s Government will it.

During the troubles in Northern Ireland, hundreds of thousands of British servicemen served on Operation Banner. Hundreds were killed and thousands were maimed by both republican and loyalist bombs. I respect the right hon. Gentleman, but how can his Government repeal the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 and throw many of those veterans to the wolves in order to pander to Sinn Féin? What is noble about that?

The legacy Act is without supporters in the communities in Northern Ireland, on any side. That is one of the reasons why it should be repealed. In the process of repeal, we will take fully into account the concerns and position of veterans, who have given such service, as the right hon. Gentleman rightly says, and their families.

I am grateful to the Defence Secretary for giving way; he is always very courteous. When I was on a previous iteration of the Defence Committee, we produced an in-depth report on the best way forward after the troubles, called “Drawing a line: Protecting veterans by a Statute of Limitations”. It recommended ending prosecutions and substituting a truth recovery process. People from, shall we say, some of the Northern Irish parties felt compelled to condemn it on the Floor of the House, but quietly came up to me afterwards and admitted that it was the only way forward. Just because there is this performative condemnation by different communities, he should not be diverted from the fact that what was good enough for Nelson Mandela in South Africa should be good enough for us.

For me, one of the great strengths of the House and Parliament is the work of the all-party Select Committees. The right hon. Gentleman’s Committee, during that time, did the House and the wider cause of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland a service. We will take those points into account. I do not think that anybody could point their finger at the current Northern Ireland Secretary and say that he is not a serious figure, or that he could remotely be accused of performative politics. He will take very seriously his duty to lead the repeal of the legacy Act and find a way forward that takes everybody with us.

Remembrance Sunday is a moment when the nation comes together to honour those who have served, those who have fought and, above all, those who have made the ultimate sacrifice of their life to defend our country, preserve our freedoms and protect our way of life. To all those who serve and have served, on behalf of the country, I offer a profound thank you.

This will be the first time many new Members have the privilege of representing their constituency at remembrance parades, ceremonies and services. I encourage all to play their fullest part, and to go into their schools to join in the lessons and projects that will take place in the run-up to Remembrance Day, because remembrance is not just an opportunity to show our gratitude and pride; it is an opportunity to learn, and to teach the next generation about the service and sacrifice of those who came before. Given that the number of veterans in this country will fall by a third in this decade, it is clear that we need to do more at all levels to reinforce the country’s understanding of and commitment to our armed forces. That has never been more important than in the year in which we mark the 80th anniversary of D-day and many of the major battles that led to the end of the second world war. At the weekend, we marked a decade since the conclusion of UK combat operations in Afghanistan, and during this Remembrance we honour the 457 British service personnel who lost their life, the thousands who were wounded, and their families, who bore such a burden.

I thank the Minister for his contribution. He is an honest and honourable person. This is on the subject of justice for those who served in uniform. I declare an interest, having served in the Ulster Defence Regiment for three years and in the Royal Artillery for 11 and a half years; that is 14 and a half years in total. My cousin was murdered on 10 December 1971. No one was ever made accountable for his murder. The IRA men who killed him ran across the border to the Republic of Ireland, to sanctuary and safety. No one was made accountable for the murder of four UDR men at Ballydugan on 9 April 1990. It grieves me greatly on their behalf to know that there are people still walking about who have never been made accountable in this world for what they have done. I want to see justice. Does the Minister want to see justice for those people as well?

I had moved on to Afghanistan, but the hon. Gentleman, in his forceful way, makes his point, which is on the record.

I want to move on and use this remembrance period and this debate to pay tribute to the very special service charities that we have in the UK. They work, week in, week out, all year round, to raise funds, promote awareness and provide services to our armed forces and veterans.

I will give way one more time, and then conclude my speech, so that the House can hear from the many Members who wish to speak.

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for mentioning the good work of charities. My base in North Devon, Royal Marines Base Chivenor, and garrison commander Lieutenant Colonel Simpson are supportive of service charities, including the Royal Marines Association. Will the Secretary of State wish the Royal Marine Corps a happy birthday, as they celebrate their 360th birthday today?

I am so glad that I gave way. I was going to leave that to my hon. Friend the Minister for Veterans and People, who I am sure will have something to say about that. To respond to the hon. Gentleman’s invitation, on behalf of the whole House, I say: what a remarkable service, and what a remarkable feat—360 years proud today. We honour those in that service, we wish them well in future, and say a big happy birthday.

At this time of year, we see the particular contribution of the Royal British Legion and the importance of its poppy appeal. Let us recognise the commitment of the hundreds of volunteers across the country who recruit the poppy sellers, organise the shifts, check the stock, account for the donations and encourage the public to give, and to wear poppies at this time of year with such pride. On behalf of us all, thank you.

These are serious times—war in Europe, conflict in the middle east, growing Russian aggression and increasing threats elsewhere. As the world becomes more dangerous, we will rely more heavily on the professionalism and courage of our armed forces. It is against that backdrop that the Government are committed to renewing the nation’s contract with those who serve. We have already been able to announce the largest pay increase for our forces for over 20 years, and I am the first Defence Secretary who can stand in the House and say that everyone in uniform in the UK armed forces will be paid at least the national living wage. That is why we announced, in our first King’s Speech, legislation to introduce an independent armed forces commissioner to improve service life for service personnel and their families.

Will the Secretary of State give way?

I will, because the hon. Gentleman is particularly persistent. Despite his youthful looks, he has been in the House for some time.

True enough, and I am sure I should know better.

Recruiting and retaining good people who will serve our country is made a little easier if they know that they will be cared for in the years after they leave active service. Will the Secretary of State say something about the importance of investing in mental health support for veterans, and in particular congratulate One Vision, the charity in my constituency that provides counselling support for the armed forces and all those in uniform, and does work to make sure that we value those people in the years after they have actively served us?

I will indeed. The hon. Gentleman is right, of course. On support services for veterans who need them, there is not just what the Government can help provide—including, on mental health, through Op Courage—but what is provided by a network of first-class local charities. If One Vision plays a part in that in his area of Cumbria, I certainly pay tribute to it.

There is a more profound reason for our concern to provide support for our veterans. We need to recognise that those on deployment in the armed forces must have the confidence to act decisively on behalf of the nation, and they can be motivated and have their confidence reinforced by how they see the nation supporting veterans back home. That is why we pledged in our manifesto in July to improve access to support for our veterans, including on mental health, employment and housing. It is why we have committed to putting the armed forces covenant fully into law. It is why, within three months of taking office, we have delivered on the commitment to make the veteran’s identity card an accepted form of voter ID, and why the Prime Minister, in his first conference speech, announced that veterans would be exempt from rules requiring a connection to the area from those seeking to access housing there.

At the heart of our national security will always be the men and women who serve this country. As we consider this debate, we have an opportunity to reflect on what we mean by remembrance and to recognise the immense contribution made to this country by our veterans, by serving members of the armed forces and by the families who support them.

Hundreds of thousands have answered the nation’s call and given their lives in doing so. We honour them, and we will remember them.

I call the shadow Minister.

Does the shadow Minister think that the Conservative party is missing the point of this debate by seeking to score political points?

I rise today, in common with many other hon. Members, to express my immense gratitude and admiration for all our veterans of today and yesteryear. I also rise to speak from a different angle. I represent Slough, one of the most ethnically diverse constituencies, and I was the first turbaned Sikh to be elected to Parliament. I believe I have a specific duty to speak out for those who have often been relegated to the footnotes of history, but whose sacrifices must not be sidelined. It is more important than ever, particularly having seen our streets recently filled with far-right hatred, that remembrance is not exclusive. The contribution of all those who have sacrificed their lives must be remembered.

In particular, it cannot be ignored that both world wars could not have been won by British-born troops alone, without the contribution of soldiers born beyond our own borders. In world war one, approximately 2 million brave soldiers from Commonwealth countries laid down their lives to protect ours. Some 166 African servicemen were decorated in recognition of their valour. Troops from the British West Indies Regiment were awarded 81 medals and received 51 mentions in dispatches. More than 1.5 million people from what is modern day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh contributed to the war effort, forming a largely voluntary army of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and many other faiths. Indeed, today over 11% of our current forces are from ethnic minorities. If we fail properly to commemorate and celebrate the contribution of our armed forces whose roots lie in countries across the globe, we do our own history a huge disservice.

Coming from a strong military background myself— my great-grandfather lost a leg fighting in the first world war; my grandmother’s brother and other family members fought in the second world war—I feel immense pride in that shared history. It is staggering that despite making up just 2% of pre-partition British India, Sikhs formed 20% of the Indian Army. I am immensely proud of those who fought so valiantly and believe that such a contribution should be properly commemorated. That is why I serve as president of the National Sikh War Memorial Trust and have passionately campaigned for several years for a fitting memorial in central London to those Sikh soldiers, so that we may remember the tens of thousands of turbaned Sikhs who sacrificed their lives, and the more than 100,000 who were injured during both world wars. We must ensure that remembrance serves as a reminder to all that the freedoms we enjoy today were hard fought for by forces as diverse as modern-day Britain.

We cannot airbrush the past, despite the efforts of some right-wing commentators to do just that. In 2020, Kevin Maguire from The Mirror and I had to educate Laurence Fox on Sikh sacrifices during world war one, following his bigoted comments that the film “1917” was somehow “woke” or “racist” for its inclusion of Sikh soldiers. To his credit, Laurence Fox later apologised, after he had been hit with some hard facts, but that ignorance has rooted in much of the culture of remembrance and must be challenged.

Even today, forces who stood shoulder to shoulder with British troops struggle to get the recognition they deserve, but I have no doubt that my right hon. Friend the Defence Secretary will rectify that. For example, Gurkha pensions are falling short of the Army standard; it took a fight to get certain visa fees scrapped for non-UK service personnel; and recent errors in the Afghan relocations and assistance policy have left Triples forces out in the cold. Pervasive racism caused a failure to treat 54,000 world war one casualties from India, west Africa, east Africa, Egypt and Somalia equally. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary campaigned effectively on that important matter, but there should not be another battle simply to get parity.

Those who served alongside British troops should be a beacon of hope for a collective pride that goes beyond borders, colour or background. Their commitment to our country meant they were willing to sacrifice everything for it. Those contributions should be celebrated, not sidelined. Their commitment in the darkest of times ensured our safety. Fundamentally, without the sacrifices and contributions of the millions of personnel across the globe, we would simply not have the privilege of sitting here today. They have ensured our collective freedom. We must never take for granted the hard-won freedoms to operate under a democracy, to live in a pluralist society and to be safe. It is simply not enough to be thankful. We must celebrate their service, honour their duty and always remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our nation. We will remember them.

I call the spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat party.

Today, we gather to honour the sacrifices and contributions of our veterans—brave men and women who have selflessly put their lives on the line for our country. Each one of them embodies the courage, resilience and dedication that define the spirit of service. We should not just recognise their service on the battlefield, but understand the challenges they continue to face once they return home.

I start with a bit of my own story. I served in the British Army as part of the Royal Military Police. I did not come from a military family. My journey began with a desire to lead, travel and make a difference. I studied languages at university, and was drawn to the British Army’s role in international aid and disaster relief. I thought it would eventually lead me into humanitarian work. Training at Sandhurst was gruelling, especially with equipment that was not designed for women, but I came out of that experience with friendships that have lasted a lifetime with people who saw me through my highest and lowest points.

After Sandhurst, I was deployed to Bosnia, where my platoon was already stationed as part of the stabilisation force—SFOR—a NATO peacekeeping force. Working alongside American, British, Canadian, Czech and Dutch troops, I witnessed at first hand the disparities in resources and funding. The contrast was stark. Our American counterparts had advanced equipment, with all the bells and whistles, while we operated with much less. That showed me not only the resilience of our troops, but the challenges we face due to limited resources.

Shortly after that, I was sent to Iraq on Operation Telic IV with the 1st Battalion Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, tasked with retraining the Iraqi police force and supporting policing efforts to train over 1,200 of the Iraqi police service in Maysan province, a volatile and dangerous area. We trained the police outside our camp and in old air bases, with unexploded ordnance next to us, and visit police stations supporting the IPS with their work. We distributed cars, equipment, weapons and money to the IPS, and gathered intelligence on Iranian weapon smuggling.

Just a year before my arrival, six of my RMP colleagues were killed in Majar al-Kabir. I vividly remember the fear of my first night, aged just 26, travelling in a blacked-out bus after landing in Maysan, en route to Camp Abu Naji, really unsure of what lay ahead—a fear I imagine many soldiers face today: the fear of the unknown, the fear of what is to come, especially those on the frontline in places such as Ukraine. Iraq was not easy. We came under fire regularly, and some of my fellow soldiers did not make it home. Tensions escalated when photos were published falsely showing British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees. For several days, our base was surrounded by angry armed locals. There was a lot of tension but we got through it together.

On the base, there were over 1,000 soldiers, but only three female officers and a handful of female non-commissioned officers. The one positive thing about that was that at least I could get to the toilet and the shower without a queue. Despite the challenges, I was grateful for the brave interpreters, local police and all the other locals who worked with us on camp and out on the ground. We must remember the sacrifices local people on operations make to support our armed forces abroad.

After returning to the UK, we started a family, and I had to make a choice between family and career. With no military support to help balance these responsibilities, I eventually left the Army earlier than I had planned. That is too common a story. As the Haythornthwaite review highlighted, the most common reason service members leave the armed forces is the impact on family and personal life. There were no options for me as a mother. I would have been sent to Afghanistan next, and there were no nurseries on the frontline. There was no flexible career path for me, and I am not alone. Many service members face pressures that extend beyond the battlefield, and we simply need to do more to support them.

I am immensely proud of my constituency’s connection to the armed forces. We have Langley Vale, where more than 8,000 soldiers trained during the first world war. It was where Lord Kitchener famously inspected the troops, and it now serves as a place of reflection, with beautiful sculptures honouring our military past. Our local Royal Engineers, the 135 Geographic Squadron, recently celebrated their 75th anniversary this year, proudly marching with bayonets fixed, exercising their freedom of Epsom and Ewell. These are powerful reminders of the sacrifices made by generations of service members.

Honouring our veterans goes beyond remembrance: it is about action. There are pressing issues that we must address to ensure that veterans and their families are supported after their service. Housing is one such issue. It is unacceptable that more than 2,000 households with a veteran were assessed as homeless last year. High-quality, affordable accommodation for veterans should be accessible across the country. No one who served our nation should face homelessness. The winter fuel allowance is another concern. Many veterans struggle financially, and recent cuts to the allowance will hit some of them hard. It is a lifeline, especially in colder months, and veterans should be able to rely on this support.

Military compensation also needs reform. The current system often counts military compensation towards means-tested benefits. In 2022, about 150,000 veterans received compensation for injuries sustained during service, but many councils count it as income, penalising veterans who desperately need support. That practice goes against the armed forces covenant, and it is time that we changed those rules.

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government should give serious thought to excluding military compensation when calculating pension credit?

I agree with my hon. Friend.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) mentioned, we also need to improve mental health support for veterans. More than half of veterans have faced mental health challenges, yet 60% hesitate to seek support due to stigma. To reduce stigma, and encourage more veterans to seek the support that they need, we need regular mental health check-ups for veterans, along with better tracking of both physical and mental health outcomes.

Female veterans face additional challenges, including higher unemployment rates and a greater risk of harassment. The Atherton report found that nearly two thirds of female veterans experienced bullying or harassment during service. That is unacceptable, and we must implement recommendations to protect and support women who serve. Finally, our LGBT+ veterans deserve justice. Those dismissed because of their sexuality are being offered compensation of £12,500, which is wholly insufficient and fails to reflect the harm that they endured. The Government must reassess the scheme to ensure these veterans receive fair compensation.

We thank all charities who support our armed forces, and we remember those who have fallen, but as we remember the contributions of those who have served, let us honour their sacrifices with action. We need a system that truly supports our service personnel, veterans and their families. That means addressing issues ranging from housing and pay to diversity and equality. Our veterans deserve not just our respect but our commitment to making a real difference in their lives.

Order. I will now impose an immediate time limit of three minutes for Back-Bench speeches and six minutes for maiden speeches. I call Jodie Gosling to make her maiden speech.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to make my maiden speech in this important remembrance and commemoration debate. It is a great privilege to have been chosen by the people of Nuneaton, my home, to represent them in this Chamber. I understand the weight of the responsibility that I now have, and I will work hard to bring about the change that we need to thrive.

My journey to this place was indirect, and many individuals supported and inspired me along the way, from the excellent campaign support so willingly given by local members to the kindness, good will and advice of my constituents. I need to give credit to my family too. As the sixth of seven siblings, I will not try to do so individually, but I need to reflect on my mum’s incredible work ethic and compassion and my dad’s sense of fun and drive to ensure that education was at the heart of our family. Similarly, my children are my greatest source of inspiration. Our legacy will be their future. I thank them and my partner for joining us here today, and for their enduring understanding, patience and unwavering support.

Nuneaton is a beautiful town, and I am proud to call it home. It is steeped in a rich history that stretches back to the Domesday Book. Originally simply referred to as Eaton, meaning “the town by the river”, recognising the significance of our River Anker, with the 12th-century addition of a nunnery it simply became Nuneaton Priory, and there the name was formed. Soon after, Henry II gave us our market charter, and the market town that we know and love today began to develop. It is the largest town in Warwickshire, nestled in beautiful rolling hills and stunning countryside. Our coal industry was the economic bedrock from the 19th century until the closure of Daw Mill in 2013, which called an abrupt end to that era.

Nuneaton’s sense of pride and duty is never clearer than in its service record. Nuneaton is home to many members of the armed forces and veterans. This year, we welcomed our first Nepalese councillor, Bhim Saru, to Nuneaton and Bedworth council, and congratulated Om Gurung on being the first Gurkha to become a freeman of our town. His work is truly inspirational. A Gurkha monument in Riversley Park is the first memorial of its kind dedicated to the brave Nepalese and Indian soldiers who lost their lives in the service of the British forces.

Those who visit Riversley Park will also find Louis’s playground, where Louis Carter played as a child. Louis, a son of Nuneaton, was a well-respected cadet who, following the completion of his training, joined the Royal Fusiliers and was deployed to Helmand Province where he was known as a friendly, loyal and kind member of his platoon. His platoon leader was caught in an improvised explosive device blast while out on patrol. Fusilier Louis Carter acted to aid his comrade, but fell victim to a secondary device. He was just 18 years of age. His companionship, insurmountable courage and sense of service continue to live on as we remember him.

The people of Nuneaton are proud of Louis and all our fallen sons and daughters. Our local Royal British Legion works tirelessly to support their families and commemorate their lives. Special credit needs to be given to Laurie Payne, Nuneaton’s last surviving Korean war veteran, who will celebrate his 96th birthday on Remembrance Sunday this year, and reportedly still outsells all other members in poppy sales.

I also pay credit and give thanks to my predecessor, Marcus Jones, who represented Nuneaton in this House for 14 years. In common with the residents of treacle town, he believed in common sense and hard work, and was respected on both sides of the House for his civility.

Any account of Nuneaton today needs to recognise the challenges facing a town whose traditional industries can no longer support the large numbers of residents they once did. The willingness of those impacted to retrain, diversify and reinvent themselves as work moves into engineering, digital and scientific areas shows the admirable skills needed to embrace the opportunities of an evolving industrial landscape. Nuneaton’s central location and connectivity provide logistical opportunities, just as the canals once did for our textiles. Despite the many challenges that Nuneaton has faced, its resilience shines through. It is a town of opportunity and hope.

I congratulate Nuneaton Signs on its recent King’s award for inclusion. Not only is it one of the leading road sign manufacturers in the country but it boasts an inclusion record of over 66% of its staff identifying as having a disability. It is a truly brilliant company that represents our communities. We also celebrate the town’s diverse culture, with its thriving art community, the Abbey theatre and its hugely generous spirit, which can be seen in our various charities and dazzling annual carnival.

As the first female MP for Nuneaton, I must give credit to one of the trailblazers who went before me, opening up opportunities. Mary Ann Evans, more commonly known for her writing as George Eliot, was born just down the road from me. She wrote under a male name in an attempt to free herself from the discrimination of readers and publishers. Her books opened up public discussion on areas such as domestic violence, the status of women, poverty, political reform, addiction and education—issues that are still as relevant two centuries later.

For me, remembrance is a deeply humbling time of the year and an opportunity to reflect upon the freedoms and privileges that we often take for granted in this country. Freedom of speech, the rule of law and democracy are values for which our forefathers fought bravely. Each generation must make sacrifices to ensure that their children can live in freedom. We see that most clearly today in eastern Europe, where Ukraine fights to defend itself from the barbaric assault on its democracy by Putin’s Russia.

My South Northamptonshire constituency is filled with monuments to the heroes of the past, and I look forward this year to marking their sacrifice by attending the Towcester remembrance service at St Lawrence Church, the Brackley service at Winchester House school and the act of remembrance in Bozeat cemetery. I will also join the local branch of the Royal British Legion to sell poppies.

Since my election to this place, I have joined the armed forces parliamentary scheme, and have had the opportunity to see at first hand how crucial it is that we support our serving men and women properly. In a world where threats are rising, we should be investing more, not less, in our armed forces. I was proud to stand on a manifesto that committed to raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, and I am disappointed that the Labour Government cannot make the same outright commitment. Our veterans are the very best of us and should be given the right support to transition out of active duty and into civilian life.

The previous Government put a Veterans Minister around the Cabinet table for the first time, tackled veteran homelessness through Operation Fortitude, created a dedicated veterans’ mental health pathway in Operation Courage, and introduced the veterans’ railcard.

If we are to honour the sacrifice of those who came before us, if we are to keep our promise to make the UK the best place to be a veteran, and if we are to ensure that the cause of freedom is defended around the world, we must fund our armed forces properly.

I call Dan Tomlinson to make his maiden speech.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. May I start by praising my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling) for her fantastic maiden speech? Like other Labour Members, I have Nuneaton seared into my memory because of its role in the 2015 general election. It is nice now to be able to think of such a fantastic speech when I think of Nuneaton.

I pay tribute to my predecessor as the MP for Chipping Barnet, Theresa Villiers, who served with much hard work and diligence over her 19 years of service. She was a hard-working Member of Parliament, and I hope to follow in her footsteps in that regard.

Just yesterday, I was with members of the East Barnet branch of the Royal British Legion, and I thought then, as we think now, of all those who have given their lives and livelihoods to service to keep our country safe.

Chipping Barnet is not, as some may assume, in the Cotswolds, which is home to Chipping Norton and Jeremy Clarkson’s farm—although we do have 14 farms in the constituency. We are, in fact, a suburb of London—part of the London borough of Barnet—and it is the suburbs that I would like to speak about today, for it is my contention that when a political party understands the suburbs, it is able then, and only then, to speak on behalf of, and govern for, the country as a whole.

Let me give the House a little history of Chipping Barnet. Back in the 1700s, a weary traveller trying to make their way northwards out of London, on the great north road, would find that the natural resting point for their first night’s stay would be Chipping Barnet, where no fewer than 25 public houses could put them up for the night. I will ensure that I continue supporting and patronising the pubs in Chipping Barnet during my time in office.

If we roll forward 200 years, we get to the extension of the Northern line to the constituency, joining us up with the city of London proper. With a relatively liberal planning system pre-1947, that connectivity enabled a surge of housebuilding, which Labour Members will think about, I am sure, when we seek to build and invest for the future. Chipping Barnet is home, as I said, to wonderful farms and green spaces, and many of us moved to Barnet because we value a house with a garden, room to raise the kids, and maybe even space to park the car out front—the aspirations of suburban life.

Let me say to people of faith in my constituency just how grateful I am for the warmth with which I have been received in churches, synagogues and mosques. In particular, I say to Jewish and Muslim residents that I will always stand with them against the antisemitism and Islamophobia that I know has been on the rise in recent months and over the past year.

It is important to do good work locally as a Member of Parliament, but it is my firm belief that we must raise our game in this House and nationally if we are to truly make a difference for our constituents. The need for change is great. Gone are the days when a child could grow up in a low-income family and on free school meals, just as I did, but with the security of a social security system that was there for them and genuinely affordable social housing. Representing the suburbs is just as much about standing up for the people who cannot afford to or do not commute into town as it is about representing those who do.

People’s aspiration for a better life for their families and communities is still there, but it is not being met. I am talking about the deal of suburban life: people who put in so much—spending their time stuck in traffic or on the Northern line, raising their kids to know right from wrong, and serving in their communities and working hard—expect in return that the Government will just get some things right by providing public services that are there when needed and ensuring that the economy is strong and growing. I saw that deal fall apart somewhat during my time as an economist before entering this House. I worked at the Treasury for a time, and then at the Resolution Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. I saw that deal fall apart in charts and in numbers on spreadsheets, but since becoming a parliamentary candidate and then a Member of Parliament, I have heard at first hand from constituents in the suburbs about how that deal has fallen apart. I think of young people who cannot afford to move out of their parents’ homes and own or rent in the suburbs. I think of many residents who want to buy a new car but are scared that if they do, it will be stolen and the police will not follow up. Those everyday aspirations are not being met any more.

My work in this place—our work on the Labour Benches—will be to rebuild that deal of suburbia and ensure that those who put in so much get it back again. I say to residents of Chipping Barnet, whether they live in Brunswick Park, Whetstone, Totteridge, Mill Hill East, Arkley, Edgwarebury, Underhill or one of the many Barnets—High Barnet, East Barnet, New Barnet or Barnet Vale—that it is the honour of my life to serve and represent them. I will do all I can for our communities during my time in this place.

I call Rebecca Paul to make her maiden speech.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me the opportunity to deliver my maiden speech in this important debate about remembering the valiant actions of those who have fought to keep this country safe.

It is a privilege to rise as the newly elected Member of Parliament for Reigate, a constituency that I am proud to represent and serve. I am deeply grateful to the people of Reigate, Redhill, Banstead and our villages for placing their trust in me.

Before I turn to an issue of great importance to my constituents, I must acknowledge my predecessor, Crispin Blunt, who is himself a veteran. I have not rushed to deliver my maiden speech, not least out of a desire to give careful thought to the words I choose. Ironically, it seems that Crispin faced a similar conundrum in 1997. In fact, I do not think I can do better than to quote from his own maiden speech:

“It must be admitted that Sir George Gardiner did not end his Conservative party career in a blaze of glory…Sir George was a resolute battler for the causes he believed in, and although many of us questioned his judgment at the end, no one could question the resolve with which he steered his chosen course.”—[Official Report, 9 June 1997; Vol. 295, c. 857.]

My sincere hope is that when my successor rises to deliver their maiden speech, they are not inclined to give those words a third airing in this House.

That said, I would like to recognise Crispin Blunt’s 27 years of public service, and also pay tribute to his team. No MP achieves anything without a great team supporting them, and Crispin’s team served our communities with diligence and grace during many challenging times. I take this opportunity to thank them, especially Teresa Craig, who has gone above and beyond in the past 15 years to help many thousands of constituents. I also pay tribute to Lord Grayling, the former MP for Epsom and Ewell: thanks to recent boundary changes, I have welcomed the wards of Nork and Tattenham Corner and Preston into the Reigate constituency. Chris was an exceptional local MP, and I thank him for all his support.

Let me now turn to a subject close to my heart: my wonderful home. Reigate is a constituency that encapsulates the very best of both town and country—a trinity of towns in the most beautiful part of Surrey, each with its own unique character and identity. We have the historic town of Reigate, with its winding streets, independent shops and proud heritage. It is a place of immense charm and community spirit, and notably is the location of the first road tunnel built in England; it is the birthplace of Margot Fonteyn, one of the greatest classical ballerinas of all time, and is also the place where both our current Prime Minister and Fatboy Slim were educated. Just north of the town stands Reigate fort, a Victorian structure intended to serve as a last line of defence in the event that the south had fallen and defeat seemed certain—a role not unlike that which Reigate played in the recent general election.

Then there is Redhill, a railway town that pulses with energy and ambition—a transport hub and a centre for business, commerce and the arts. It is home to an inspirational Lioness and some Lobsters. As the place where the existence of solar flares was first confirmed, Redhill shines bright as a vivacious younger sister to Reigate. Finally, we have Banstead, which offers a quieter appeal with its village feel and beautiful commons. Its bustling high street is adorned with gorgeous flowers that are lovingly tended by local residents. It is a community whose respectful patriotism is keenly felt, especially at this time of year. I must take this opportunity to recognise and thank the Banstead and District Royal British Legion branch, whose members do an outstanding job paying tribute to, and raising money for, our armed forces and veterans.

Beyond our towns, we are blessed with many picturesque villages, each with its own charm. Disappointingly, Madam Deputy Speaker, there is not enough time for me to tell you about all of them, so I will tell you about just one: Walton-on-the-Hill. With its serene pond, world-class golf and history of feisty suffragettes, it is the place I chose to settle and raise my family. Like a thief, Walton stole my heart, and I must thank the Prime Minister for giving it early release.

Madam Deputy Speaker, it will not surprise you to hear that the green belt is one of the reasons why the towns and villages of my constituency are so unique. We are incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by beautiful countryside, from the rolling hills of the north downs to the open green spaces of Banstead commons. This country needs more homes, so there now comes pressure to build on the green belt because it is easy, but that is the lazy solution. The new Government talk about developing brownfield first, which I very much support, but just saying the words is not enough. For building on those sites to become a reality, we need tangible action to make brownfield development economically viable. We also need to have an honest conversation about the impact of reducing housing targets in London while nearly doubling them in Reigate and Banstead. Even if by some miracle my local council could deliver on those targets, they would simply be building homes for people from London to move into, not meeting the local need and certainly not bringing down house prices. If we are to break the cycle, we must densify in cities, where essential infrastructure is already in place.

I hope this Labour Government will consider tackling the issue of housing with the same spirit shown by the Labour Government elected in the final months of the second world war. Then as now, the country was in desperate need of more homes; Clement Attlee delivered 1 million of them, while insisting both on densification and ensuring that development was concentrated in cities and towns. Mr Attlee set out to build his new Jerusalem primarily as a fitting tribute to a generation of servicemen who fought, endured and suffered to keep this country safe from fascist tyranny. That heroic generation included Flight Lieutenant Douglas Adcock from Redhill, who flew ultra-high-risk missions for the Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron at RAF Benson. Tragically, though, Douglas never came home: on 11 August 1944, his aircraft failed to return from one of those missions. Some days later, his body washed up on the shore in Belgium, where he is buried today.

A generation earlier, Lieutenant Rupert Hallowes, another Redhill man, answered the call to serve his country. He would go on to earn the Victoria Cross in the first world war; he died fighting at Hooge in 1915. Those are accounts of just two men, but memorials across my constituency bear the names of many hundreds more who left home to fight for their country and did not return. Ultimately, the debt we owe to the fallen can never be repaid, but we honour them, keeping the promise to never forget.

I will end on that note, but just before I do, I want to thank my parents, Bev and Steve, without whom I would not be here today. Today is a proud day for our family—one that we will remember.

I call Amanda Hack to make her maiden speech.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to speak in this debate on remembrance and veterans. I congratulate my hon. Friends the Members for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling) and for Chipping Barnet (Dan Tomlinson), and the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul), on their excellent contributions.

It was an honour to attend the festival of remembrance organised just over a week ago by the Leicestershire and Rutland Royal British Legion at De Montfort hall. That festival was an outstanding tribute to those who have served in the military and those who are currently serving. It paid thanks to our armed forces with some outstanding performances from local musicians and contemporary dancers. However, it is the harrowing accounts of those who experienced the D-day landings that will stay with me. It will be a privilege to be involved in the many remembrance events across the constituency.

It is the honour of my life to have been elected to serve as the MP for North West Leicestershire. In that role, I am following Andrew Bridgen, who served the community proudly for 14 years. While we do not share much in terms of our politics, I know that he worked hard for his constituents. While I am referencing former MPs, I have to go back further to our former Labour MP, the late David Taylor, who sadly died in office in 2009. It will be no surprise to those who knew David that he is fondly remembered today in the constituency.

North West Leicestershire is in the heart of the national forest. It is a fast-growing area, with the highest housing growth in Leicestershire and an equally impressive growth in employment opportunities. None of this is surprising, considering our transport links: we have an international airport, East Midlands airport, which includes one of the largest freight operations in the country. However, like so many other areas that have seen massive growth, we have been lagging behind in terms of infrastructure. Local people need to see delivery of our commitment to expand public services, rather than the scaling-back we saw for the past 14 years under the Conservatives.

I am proud to be the first female MP in the history of North West Leicestershire. Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the unveiling of the newly refurbished mother and child statue in Coalville. Stuart Warburton, a local historian, has kindly checked for me, and we think that it is the first statue of a lone woman to be installed in the whole of Leicestershire. That award-winning statue, first installed in 1963, depicts a woman proudly striding forward with her son while holding a shopping bag containing many items linked to the constituency, including a lump of coal, an oil tanker, a yarn bobbin and a dolly. It occurred to me that there is no better way of showcasing our constituency than by considering some of the items in her bag.

North West Leicestershire has a rich mining heritage. The coalmining industry has been so important to the development of North West Leicestershire that it is literally gives its name to the main urban centre, Coalville. The coalfields powered Britain, and Kegworth—also in my constituency—is just a stone’s throw away from the last coal-fired power station in the UK, which closed just a few weeks ago. As is customary in a maiden speech, I will briefly adopt the role of travel agent: I highly recommend that everyone does a tour arranged by the Snibston Heritage Trust in Coalville. Snibston has one of the last remaining examples of above-ground working of the coalmines. We also have many pit wheels dotted across the constituency, reminding us of what previously lay beneath our feet. While in Coalville, visitors can pop into the Belvoir centre to sample the famous Birds Bakery jam tarts. My constituency is home to another character who enjoys sweet things: just a few miles up the road, in the wonderful town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, we recently had installed a Paddington Bear on a bench. For the thrill seekers, we have Donington Park, home to MotoGP and motorbike racing, and for the heavy metal fans among us, it is also home to Download festival every June.

I turn to the oil tanker in the bag. As with our coal heritage, North West Leicestershire’s fingerprints are all over the rail industry. The oil tanker represents William Stableford’s wagon works, which delivered a large contract for English and foreign railways. It is perhaps ironic that my constituency has no passenger rail service at all, even though the manufacturer Siemens completed the signalling work for the Elizabeth line from its base in the constituency. One of my major goals in this House is to get the Ivanhoe line back running for passengers. This trainline was originally created in the 1830s by the great industrialist and father of the railways, George Stephenson. Reopening it has the potential to create a beautiful trainline travelling through the greenery of the national forest. The national forest line—now that sounds nice!

North West Leicestershire had other industries, too. It is no secret that Leicestershire has a long history with the British textile industry, hence the yarn bobbin in the bag. H Seal Elastics has been knitting in the constituency since 1898 and currently provides textiles for use in military personal protective equipment—key equipment for our service personnel today. North West Leicestershire was also the home of Palitoy, which produced the dolly in the bag and the action man figurine—a character that seized the day and got stuff done.

The contents of a North West Leicestershire shopping bag today would be similar to the contents of everyone’s shopping bags at home, as the constituency is now home to a selection of food and drink manufacturers. In that shopping bag, there would be a selection of key produce from local farmers, KP Nuts, McVitie’s biscuits, a Mars bar, Jacob’s cream crackers, Quality Street, and some of the Mr Freeze ice pops that I enjoyed with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade a few months ago after a tour of the Refresco beverages factory.

During my time in this House, I hope to be an action woman—someone who adds to our North West Leicestershire bag with cleaner waterways, better public services for all and, most importantly, an anytime day return ticket on the Ivanhoe line.

In Huntingdon, one in nine households has a veteran in it. That astonishing figure illustrates the historical link between our armed forces and a constituency that still has RAF Wyton and two United States air force bases, RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth—legacy bases that can trace their history back to the second world war. I am hugely proud to represent such a vibrant veterans community.

My own service was as an infantry officer in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment. I served in the British Army during the most kinetic period of operations since the Korean war. Operation Herrick 11 in Afghanistan was a difficult tour. In Sangin, our battlegroup lost 30 soldiers; a further 170 were wounded. I remember being in the operations room when two new battle casualty replacements arrived on a resupply helicopter. I did not stop to have a brew, or help them settle in; my interaction with them both was fleeting—transactional. It was an everyday occurrence, and I thought little more about it.

A fortnight later, on Tuesday 15 December 2009, I was manning the operations room, and over the radio came an all-too-familiar message: “Contact IED. Wait. Out.” There follows a pause that lasts an eternity. You know somebody is now fighting for their life; they might already be dead. You know that you can do little other than stand up the quick reaction force and wait to find out how grave the situation is. A suicide bomber had ridden his motorbike into the checkpoint and detonated the bomb, instantly killing the two Afghan soldiers manning the checkpoint and fatally wounding two of our soldiers providing cover. I pressed our commander on the ground for an update. To my eternal regret, I was quite short with him, and continued to harry him for a sitrep. I did not know at the time that he was trying to give lifesaving first aid to one of those soldiers while under fire.

The medic that day tried valiantly to save both soldiers. Ignoring the bullets cutting the air around her, she calmly moved between each casualty, determined to do all she could to care for them. The weight of enemy fire increased. With flagrant disregard for her own safety, Bushbye nevertheless continued to move between the casualties, personally administering CPR to one of the soldiers. For her actions, Lance Corporal Sarah Bushbye was awarded the Military Cross.

Rifleman James Brown was 18 years old. He had arrived on that helicopter. He had been in Sangin for less than two weeks. Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn. I have always promised to remember him, and to give him the opportunity to live on that he sadly never had. We have a duty in this House to consider the ramifications of committing our soldiers to operations. I do not recount this story to dissuade, but to put a human face on the price it costs. They were the best of us, and the very least we can do is remember them.

I call Tom Rutland to make his maiden speech.

I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to make my maiden speech in this debate. I congratulate my colleagues on some brilliant maiden speeches today.

It is often said that it is a privilege to be in this place, and it is one that we owe to the bravery of those who fought for our country and for freedom in the two world wars. In my constituency of East Worthing and Shoreham, British troops rallied in advance of D-day on Broadwater Green and embarked from Shoreham port to land in Normandy, paving the way for the allied victory over the Nazis. With freedom in Europe again under threat, I am sure it is not just my shoulders that feel the weight of responsibility as I rise to meet this moment and honour those brave sacrifices, which transcend our time in this place.

Like so many other new Members nervously preparing their first contribution in this awe-inspiring place, I had a good flick through my predecessors’ initial contributions, and enjoyed seeing how some things had remained the same and others had changed. The constituency is still nestled between the south downs and the sea, is still the most beautiful in the country, and still has the same name, much to the disappointment of my neighbours in Lancing, who feel that the name does not properly recognise the largest village in the country. But much has changed, and my sitting here as the first Labour Member of Parliament for East Worthing and Shoreham is perhaps one clear indicator of that.

In 1997, my immediate predecessor spoke of Worthing having the oldest population in the country. Today, it is very different, with many young people coming to start a family in our vibrant coastal community. While the political sea change in the splendid seaside settlements that I represent has been stark, my constituents do not have to get used to a wildly different name for their MP; it has gone from Tim to Tom. I hope that my predecessor Tim Loughton knows of the regard in which many residents hold him after his 27 years of public service. I also hope that, in time, fewer residents call me Tim, but after 32 years of my parents’ friends’ making the same mistake in their Christmas cards, that is perhaps wishful thinking.

Speaking of family, I thank mine for their love and support on my journey here, particularly my mum and dad. I think everyone in this place had that moment when they switched on to politics and realised the difference that it could make. For me, it was realising as a teenager that I was gay, and feeling as though I would not achieve everything I could or should because of who I was. It was the worst feeling in the world; I have never forgotten it. Life is thankfully very different now, in no small part thanks to the transformative work of the last Labour Government, and of brave, trailblazing MPs. I am very lucky to be able to thank my partner, my boyfriend Jack, for his support—words that I never thought I would have the courage to say when I was growing up, but can say with great pride today. That feeling I had is why I care about politics. I do not want any child to feel that way, whether because of the colour of their skin or their religion; because they are a boy, or a girl, or have a disability; or because of who they love or how much their parents earn. That drive is what has led me to spend my career campaigning, from standing up for consumers to fighting for working people as a trade union official.

It is an honour to serve as part of this new Labour Government, because there is so much that needs fixing. My constituents know all too well the struggle to get an appointment with their GP, to find a school place for their child, to swim in the sea without sewage, to afford a safe and secure home of their own, and to get a good job that does not just pay the bills but allows them to thrive. Fixing the foundations of this country will take time, but I have no doubt that the mission of this Government, driven by the aspirations and determination of my constituents, will succeed.

There is so much to be proud of locally. We do not sit in the shadow of Brighton and Hove next door. Shoreham port is not just a thriving commercial hub for cargo, leisure boats and fishing trawlers, but an eco-port generating renewable energy and enhancing marine biodiversity. Further inland, Ricardo builds on more than a century of engineering excellence and innovation. Having been home to great penicillin fermentation tanks in the ’60s, Worthing today remains a life sciences hub, with GSK continuing to manufacture lifesaving antibiotics locally. Or take Flare, which has evolved from building world-leading loudspeakers in Lancing business park to shipping earphones and products that defend against irritating noises—I dare say that hon. Members might find them useful in this Chamber from time to time. Thanks to Fitz in Worthing, we are able to toast these successes with local fizz.

We have the most incredible community organisations, led by ordinary people giving up extraordinary amounts of their time for the betterment of others. Whether it is Wendy organising litter picks and beach cleans to Keep Lancing Lovely, Dai providing food to those in need through the Shoreham and Adur community food bank, or David, Sara and Simon running 20 youth football teams at Southwick Rangers FC, ours is a community where we look after each other and love where we live.

When I think about the good hearts of those in my constituency who inspire me, I hope that we can bring about the change that people voted for at the election in a more gentle way, because politicians are humans too, and have all the strengths and flaws of those who send us here. That is why it can be a dangerous thing to have political idols—nobody is perfect. Many years ago I had the pleasure of working for, and more importantly learning from, two giants—Lord Adonis and the late, great Tessa Jowell. If I can summon half of Andrew’s intellect and just an ounce of the extraordinary compassion that Tessa exuded, I hope I shall do them and my constituents proud.

While we all have our own story and we have all walked our own path that has brought us here today, I think my ultimate aim for my time here is the same as everyone else’s: to leave things better than we found them. I know from personal experience that politics can improve people’s lives, and it must. So I say thank you to the people of East Worthing and Shoreham for sending me here. I know that true thanks comes not in the words of this speech today, but in the hard work I will put in for as long as they see fit to send me here and give me the great privilege of serving as their Member of Parliament.

It is a real honour to follow five cracking maiden speeches from the new hon. Members for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling), for Chipping Barnet (Dan Tomlinson), for Reigate (Rebecca Paul), for North West Leicestershire (Amanda Hack) and for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tom Rutland), who all did their constituents proud.

For so many of us in this Chamber this debate is personal. We have been lucky to hear from several Members about their own service. My connection to our armed forces is a family one: both my grandad and my uncle served in the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, and their shared experiences remind me that behind every veteran is a story of sacrifice, resilience and courage, as well as the family and friends who support them and miss them while they are away. The loved ones of servicemen and women often bear the weight of anxiety and uncertainty, worrying for their safety and wellbeing. It is crucial that we honour their contributions, for they too endure hardships that are often overlooked.

I want to spend a moment to think about those whose names may not be etched into the stone of our war memorials, but whose legacies deserve to be remembered. One such figure is Romiley’s own Gertrude Powick. During the first world war, she dedicated herself to the war effort by volunteering with the Friends War Victims Relief Committee, working as a nurse on the frontlines in both France and Poland. Having travelled to Warsaw to treat a typhus outbreak, she contracted it herself and died in 1919. Gertrude was not just a care giver and a suffragist, but a trailblazer for women during wartime, and she is the only woman to be named on a war memorial in Stockport, on a plaque on the Heaton Moor memorial. Her work reminds us that heroism comes in many forms, and it is our duty to remember those like her who played a pivotal role in shaping our country’s history.

In my constituency of Hazel Grove, our community is taking many proactive steps to address the challenges faced by veterans. Nearly 3,000 veterans are estimated to be homeless in the UK at any given time, and a report from the Royal British Legion indicates that 42% of veterans are experiencing issues with their mental health—with depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. We have brilliant groups in Hazel Grove such as the Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast Club, obviously the Hazel Grove branch of the Royal British Legion, and Project Recce, which trains veterans in construction skills. We are also looking to turn Woodbank hall, a 200-year-old building that is falling into disrepair in Woodbank Memorial park, into a veterans centre, and I welcome any and all support from Ministers on the Front Bench to that end.

As we remember those who have served, let us commit ourselves not only to honouring their past sacrifices, but actively to improving their present circumstances, because a brighter future for our veterans and their families is possible—one that ensures they receive the respect, care and support they so richly deserve.

I call Leigh Ingham to make her maiden speech.

Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank those who have made their maiden speeches today: my hon. Friends the Members for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling) and for Chipping Barnet (Dan Tomlinson), the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) and my hon. Friends the Members for North West Leicestershire (Amanda Hack) and for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tom Rutland). I heard moving stories not only about their constituencies, but about their own lives.

It is an honour to speak in this debate today. With family who have served or are serving in the merchant navy, the Army and the RAF, I am thankful for the incredible sacrifice members of the armed forces and their families make for this country. My constituency has strong armed forces connections, including the accommodation at MOD Stafford—known as Beacon barracks—the training camp at Swynnerton and a veteran community of more than 4,300. I will fully support them and their families to fight to ensure they have access to quality accommodation and local services.

I grew up in a working-class household, the daughter of a factory worker and a bricklayer, who I am so pleased are here today. I never imagined that I would be standing here today making my maiden speech as an MP. To be honest, Westminster can be a little intimidating, so I would like to give particular thanks to the wonderful House of Commons Doorkeepers and the Speaker’s team for making me feel so welcome, particularly Jamie, Joe, Lee and Andy; I do not know if I am allowed to say their names. [Laughter.]

I also want to pay tribute to my predecessors, Theo Clarke and Sir Bill Cash. Theo, the former MP for Stafford, campaigned passionately on women’s health, a cause I will continue to champion. Sir Bill Cash was the previous MP for Stone and a 40-year political veteran, having won 10 general elections. I cannot promise to share his politics, but I do promise to serve my constituents with as much vigour as he did. I would also like to thank Jeremy Lefroy and David Kidney, both still regarded as brilliant constituency MPs. For constituents to praise a Conservative MP and a Labour MP in the same breath shows how important it is that constituents feel seen, heard and represented in this place by the person, not just the party. The people of Stafford, Eccleshall and the villages want a visible MP, who listens, who fights for them and who prioritises their collective interests over personal agendas—a politics that prioritises “we”, not “me”. That is the kind of politics that I wholeheartedly support.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, my constituency is both urban and rural, featuring over 50 towns and villages, which I will not be listing today. [Hon. Members: “Go on!”] I have only three minutes left. As the county town, Stafford is proud to be the largest town. Stafford town centre is quintessentially British, featuring—to name just a few—the Ancient High House, Victoria park, the famous Soup Kitchen which all hon. Members should visit, the beautiful churches of St Chad’s and St Mary’s, and of course the Gatehouse theatre, known for its Shakespeare festival. The historic castle just outside the town is a key feature of Stafford. We are also fortunate to have an outstanding-rated college in Stafford, which is shared with my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee), and we are soon to be opening a state-of-the-art institute of technology.

Eccleshall, another lovely town in my constituency, boasts a brilliant high street with seven pubs, and it has its own castle, bringing the constituency total to two. The 2024 boundary changes added rural areas including Loggerheads, Maer and Whitmore, and Gnosall to the Stafford constituency, enhancing our farming areas, and introducing new residents and lovely village pubs. Supporting our rural communities will be a key focus for me in the coming years.

One thing that always strikes me about my constituency is the caring nature and the strength of our community. Local libraries, charities and faith groups have stepped up during the past 14 years of Conservative austerity. A stand-out example is William Morris’s House of Bread, a brilliant charity that provides meals and support to those in need. One of my favourite stories about William is that, in the week he earned the Queen’s award for voluntary service, he was given an ASBO for the same work. It is a rare combination, but it demonstrates how far the people of Stafford will go to stand up for and support each other.

The change of Government means there is so much to celebrate. This Parliament’s cohort has a record proportion of state-educated and women MPs. Our Cabinet breaks records on the number of state-educated Ministers and Secretaries of State, and we have our first female Chancellor. While there is still work to be done on social mobility and equality, we are moving in the right direction. Thirty years ago when I was growing up I would not have thought someone like me could be in a place like this. So for the next five years I will continue to work closely with the people of Stafford, Eccleshall and the villages to address their issues and get our public services working again, and to celebrate the positivity and joy that is in our area.

Finally, I hope the next bricklayer’s daughter in Highfields or the factory worker’s son in Doxey knows that when they grow up they are just as entitled to end up in the House of Commons as anyone else.

May I start by joining others in wishing the Royal Marines a very happy 360th birthday today? It is a superb unit with a proud and distinguished history, albeit slightly shorter than my own regiment’s. They call us “Pongos” and we call them “Bootnecks” and it is an honour to share this House with so many distinguished Royal Marines—my hon. Friend the Member for Exmouth and Exeter East (David Reed) and the Minister for Veterans and People, the hon. Member for Birmingham Selly Oak (Al Carns) among their number.

When I was 14 my English master, Mr Smale, gave us a poem to read and it annoyed me very much. It was written by Philip Larkin, and it ends like this:

“Crowds, colourless and careworn

Had made my taxi late,

Yet not till I was airborne

Did I recall the date—

The day when Queen and Minister

And Band of Guards and all

Still act their solemn-sinister

Wreath-rubbish in Whitehall.

It used to make me throw up,

These mawkish, nursery games:

O When will England grow up?

—But I out soar the Thames,

And dwindle off down Auster

To greet Professor Lal

(He once met Morgan Forster),

My contact and my pal.”

I think what got to me then was the soaring, sneering cynicism of the persona that the poet had created of the travelling academic looking down both metaphorically and literally on the Cenotaph service here in Westminster. I think it offended my sense of fairness. Soldiers by and large have little choice in what they are called to do. Equally, they have little choice in the way in which the nation subsequently remembers them. They just do what they are called to do.

This year marks 80 years since D-day and one of my constituents, Don Sheppard, who died aged 104 this year, was a veteran of both D-day and Arnhem. On the point my hon. Friend is making, Don’s quote was, “The lads that didn’t make it back, those are the other ones we need to remember.” Does my hon. and gallant Friend agree on that point?

My right hon. Friend makes a powerful point and places on the record distinguished veterans and their contributions to national life, and I thank him for it.

As a former soldier who has lost men, let me get one thing straight: these men and women died for us all to be free—free to do whatever the laws of the land permit us to do; to wear a poppy; not to wear a poppy; to remember; not to remember. It is our freedom. It is our choice, and on days like Remembrance Sunday there is not a soldier, sailor, airman or Royal Marine for whom that question could matter less. They are in another place: they are seeing the faces of lost friends; they are feeling guilty for having survived when their friends have not; they are trying to hold it together long enough for opening time to come at the pub. If I may say, on their behalf: “Thank you. Thank you for being here in this debate today and at the constituency gardens of remembrance earlier. Thank you for the respect. Thank you for your thank you.”

The act of remembrance is a little like going to church: some people go to church once a year, some once a week. For remembrance, it could be two minutes’ silence once a year for some, or just finding two minutes’ peace in a day from the awfulness of the loss of a son or a daughter for another. Regardless, here today we will remember them and we will honour our fallen.

I am a veteran, and it is great to be a veteran. I learned so much from my service in the military: I had so many great experiences, was proud to play my own small part in Afghanistan, and worked with some fantastic people. It is great to be a veteran. Serving is not all sunshine and roses, but I can recommend no better career for someone in their 20s than to join our military.

But with the joy of service can come sadness. My constituency has many diverse towns and villages—the ex-pit town of Clay Cross, Dronfield with its bustling heart, or Killamarsh with its proud Derbyshire spirit. But they all have one thing in common: at the heart of each of them is a war memorial with the names of those lost in conflicts over the previous 100 years. These names were all once living, breathing members of their community—much-loved brothers, sons, fathers, other relatives and friends—and it is them I think of when I wear the poppy.

There can be a lot of very clever discourse about the poppy, which is such a simple and humble flower. The fact is that the poppy appeal is a truly successful grassroots movement. The first poppy appeal saw over 9 million sold in its first year, all worn by ordinary men and women who came together because they had lost a loved one and wanted to remember them. Grainy black and white photographs from the 1920s show people standing in remembrance ceremonies in the cold and silent November air, their grief clear to see on their faces even in those more stoic times. The poppy truly spontaneously united millions of people in hope. Some may not bear to see that unity but it is something that still unites millions of people today.

I would like briefly to address a few points that have been raised. It is very important that we learn the lessons of the past 14 years, and that we understand who made the decisions regarding our armed forces and why those decisions were made. Who sold off our valuable military housing stock so cheaply to Annington? I believe it was the Conservatives. Who pulled our forces back from important bases in Germany even as Russia became active in Ukraine? Again, it was the Conservatives. Who wasted billions of pounds on procurement, and reduced the offer to serving personnel, leading to a haemorrhage in the numbers serving in our military? It was the Conservatives. Who oversaw the reduction of our military size to barely being able to field a brigade minus? It was the Conservatives. So, yes let us have accountability, but it starts with an iota of shame from the party opposite before they are allowed anywhere near our defence again. At least, however, some of them are here; I note that not every party has a representative present.

I would also like to add briefly in response that one tenet very close to my heart as a veteran is that the rule of law is of the highest importance—

Order. I call Liz Saville Roberts.

In the time that I have I would like to raise a couple of matters particularly relevant to Wales and also say what a delight it is to hear all the maiden speeches this evening.

The post of Veterans’ Commissioner for Wales was established two years ago and is held by Colonel James Phillips but his appointment is due to come to an end on 31 December. Please will the Minister in his closing remarks update the House on approval to extend this role? Colonel Phillips’ second annual report was published last month and it makes clear why a commissioner is crucial for veterans in Wales so they are not failed by the jagged edge of devolved and reserved powers. Core state funding from both the Welsh and UK Governments is necessary to make sure veterans receive proper care in health and housing, which are devolved, as well as reserved matters such as welfare and justice.

Some 50% of the veteran population in Wales is over 65 years old and 20% is over 85. Alongside health, the cost of living is a significant challenge for older veterans, and of course military compensation should not be treated as income for the purposes of benefits and pensions. An income disregard should be introduced for the war pensions and armed forced compensation scheme. This is about not just the veterans themselves, but the third sector providers on which veteran support relies so heavily in Wales. Those providers have seen a steep increase in operational costs and reduced funding. Organisations such as Woody’s Lodge and VC Gallery have been particularly hard-hit. That is important. While initiatives such as Op Courage, Op Restore and Op Nova have received new money in England, in Wales they do not exist and we have not seen equivalent funding either, leaving many critical services funded hand to mouth from year to year through grants.

This evening, I am also proud to support the campaign for an official memorial to remember and honour the pilots and navigators of the RAF’s Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. That is being organised as we speak by the Spitfire AA810 project. The PRU flew highly dangerous, clandestine missions to take intelligence photos. Its stripped-down planes were unarmed, so as to carry as much fuel as possible. For that reason, the PRU included conscientious objectors among its crews. The death rate was horrific, with around 48% losing their lives. One PRU survivor was Edward Bacon of Y Felinheli near Caernarfon in my constituency. The project is keen to reach out to families to collect their stories, so that their loved ones will once again be more than just another name carved on a war memorial.

Talking of memorials, the project is also campaigning for a UK memorial here in Westminster. When that comes to fruition—and it will—wreckage from a PRU aircraft will be its centrepiece. That poignant reminder of the courage and horrendous risks faced by PRU airmen was retrieved just last month from a Mosquito aircraft that crashed on Aran Fawddwy in Meirionnydd 80 years ago—

Order. I call Sarah Hall.

As a nation, we are rightly proud of our armed forces personnel and veterans, and theirs is the ultimate public service. We owe them a debt of gratitude. All here today, as we have heard already, have been touched by stories of heroism and heartbreaking sacrifice in defence of our nation. I take this opportunity to honour those who have served and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our freedoms and protect our way of life.

Today, I want to focus on three brave soldiers from Warrington who lost their lives: Marine Steven Birdsall of 40 Commando Royal Marines, who died in 2010; Private Thomas Sephton of 1st Battalion the Mercian Regiment, who died in 2010; and Private Daniel Wade from 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, who died in 2012. We will never forget the sacrifices they made.

We are all here today because we owe so much to those who came before. We are deeply proud of our veterans, serving personnel and the families who support them for the contribution they make to our country. I also pay tribute to the mother of Private Daniel Wade, Lisa Billing. In memory of her son, Lisa worked tirelessly alongside Warrington borough council and others to revitalise Marshall gardens in Warrington town centre. Marshall gardens, which sits opposite the town cenotaph on Bridgefoot, has been transformed into a haven of peace, reflection and remembrance. Lisa was instrumental in making that happen, pouring her heart and soul into the project.

In Warrington, the scale of support for our serving personnel, veterans and families is clear to see with the popularity of the annual Warrington Armed Forces Day festival. It is held each year at Crosfields rugby league club to raise money for armed forces charities in memory of Tom Sephton. It is here that the community has taken the opportunity to come together to enjoy a day of rugby league entertainment, with thousands of people showing their continuing and unwavering support to all our armed forces. They raise tens of thousands of pounds for armed forces, rugby league and local charities.

I also pay tribute to Warrington’s veterans hub. While based in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Charlotte Nichols), the support offered by the hub reaches far and wide. It is fair to say that while we are two constituencies, we are one town—one town with a shared sense of pride, respect and admiration for all serving and veteran military personnel, and a shared drive and passion to ensure they receive the help and support they need. While we have heard many warm words about the contribution of our armed forces over the years, too often that has not translated into action. However, I am proud that this Labour Government have committed to act—

Order. I call Jim Allister.

I join in the tributes to our gallant security forces who, through their sacrifice, have brought us all the liberty that we enjoy. When our soldiers fall in foreign fields, we feel it very deeply. When they fall on home ground, there is an added poignancy to it. As a Member for Northern Ireland, representing the constituency of North Antrim, tonight I want to place on record the appreciation of so many people in Northern Ireland for the willing sacrifice of our gallant security forces from across this United Kingdom who paid with their lives in defending Northern Ireland from the ravages of terrorism. That debt is much appreciated by many of us.

In thinking of that debt, and of our affirmation that “We will remember them”, I wanted just to give an illustration. Today is 28 October, so let me share with the House the number and names of the soldiers who died on 28 October in various years on home soil in the United Kingdom.

On 28 October 1972, Lance Sergeant Thomas McKay from Edinburgh, a married man with two children, was shot from behind in Londonderry. On 28 October 1973, Private Stephen Hall, 1st Light Infantry, from Bristol, was shot in Crossmaglen. In 1974, Private Michael Swanick and Private Alan Coughlan were both murdered by a bomb attack on the Sandes home where they stayed at Ballykinler camp. On 28 October 1976, off-duty Ulster Defence Regiment soldier—this reminds us that so many local soldiers also paid the price—Stanley Desmond Adams was shot doing his rounds as a postman. On 28 October 1979, Warrant Officer David Bellamy was shot in a Land Rover as he left a police station.

Those are reminders of names we have all forgotten, but names of those to whom we in Northern Ireland and elsewhere owe so much. I place on record our appreciation tonight. I say one final thing to the Government: we have a veterans commissioner in Northern Ireland, but it has never been put on a statutory basis. That needs to be done to give it lasting effect.

Leeds South West and Morley has a proud tradition of standing side-by-side with veterans in our community and remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice. In Morley, our serving mayor Simon Brown served with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. In 2006, Simon was shot by a sniper in Iraq while on a rescue mission to help his stranded vehicle’s six-person crew. He lost one eye completely, and he has only partial sight in the other. That has never held him back from serving the veterans in our community in Morley, and we are proud to have him as our mayor.

Simon’s deputy mayor, Carol Edwards, is also a veteran. Carol supports the organisation, Veterans in Need Together. VINT aims to help veterans to regain their sense of provide following their service. The lead facilitator, Adi Heptinstall, provides a space at Morley fire station every Wednesday at 7 pm for veterans to come together to talk and share. I also pay tribute to Christine Hirst, who runs the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association luncheon club in Morley on the first Sunday of every month. The meals are excellent, as is the entertainment.

Like every corner of the UK, we have also lost servicepeople in the line of duty. I want to pay tribute to Morley’s Lance Corporal David Kirkness, who lost his life in 2009 to a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, along with Rifleman James Brown. Senior officers in the military at the time said that they gave their lives to prevent a larger tragedy in a nearby marketplace, where casualties would have been much higher. We thank David for his service.

It is so important that we remember the sacrifice that our veterans have made for us. Every year, the Royal British Legion branches in Morley and East and West Ardsley do their part for the poppy appeal. I place on record my thanks to Gail Wood, our honorary poppy appeal organiser in Morley, and Paul Wood, her deputy, for their tireless efforts, along with every volunteer who supports the Royal British Legion.

Every part of my constituency will pay tribute on Remembrance Sunday. The people of Morley will show up in huge numbers, as we always do, at the service in Scatcherd Park. Terry Grayshon, the chairman of the Morley remembrance committee, does an outstanding job of helping to organise that. Rev. Chris Balding will lead services in Wortley and at Farnley cenotaph. There will be services in Drighlington, Gildersome, and Churwell—in every part of my constituency. In Tingley, there will be a service near the site where a RAF bomber crashed in 1944, where we will honour the seven servicemen who tragically lost their lives as a result.

Every corner of Leeds South West and Morley takes pride in paying their respects to those who have served. Our veterans have done their part for our country and we should never stop trying to do our part for them.

As we approach remembrance, we often think of one person—perhaps a friend who has died in conflict, or if we have served, perhaps comrades, or perhaps a great-grandparent we never met but whose memory looms large in our family lore. We often remember one person, and this year as we remember, I will be thinking of Luke Tooke, a royal artilleryman from the 16th Regiment Royal Artillery.

Luke was the last Tunbridge Wellian to die in conflict. In 2018 in Kabul, Afghanistan, a suicide bomber, in a truck packed full of explosives, rammed the gates of a compound, following which, in a secondary attack, a bunch of insurgents stormed the compound, and Luke died in the resulting firefight. I never knew Luke but I had the honour of marching alongside his dad, Anthony, in the remembrance parade in Tunbridge Wells. After we had marched, Anthony and I spoke about Luke and about Jacqueline, who was Luke’s mum. I was struck by the quiet dignity and pride that they showed in their son in the face of what must be heart-searing pain. We have heard it said today that if, every day, they can find two minutes to escape that heart-searing pain, it must be a blessed release.

I am often asked whether deaths in conflict—British deaths in conflict, specifically—are worth it, and as a veteran of Afghanistan, I often think about that. There are two answers. One is the personal: each death is a tragedy. Luke died defending his comrades and his mates and it is a tragedy, but it has meaning because he died in service to his comrades and his friends. For the second answer, we have to look to ourselves—to Members of this House—for it is us who send them there, and we do that for our country. The greatest honour that we can pay to our veterans is to consider incredibly carefully the questions that come before us, because we will have to make decisions about peace and war in this Parliament. We will remember Luke.

I join the House in thanking our armed forces, including people from Central Ayrshire who have served our country and who continue to put their lives on the line in the defence of our country, and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. I also thank the Royal British Legion Irvine and Troon branches, as well as the Ayr and Prestwick branch of the Royal Air Forces Association and the Prestwick community council for the remembrance services they help to arrange in the towns of Irvine, Prestwick and Troon, and their important work year-round to support veterans and their families.

I also thank Veterans First Point in Irvine, which is staffed by veterans and is a one-stop shop for veterans and their families. I hope the House extends its congratulations to the Ayr and Prestwick branch of the Royal Air Forces Association, which received the President’s cup at this year’s national conference. It was recognised as the top branch in the RAFA for its excellent work with veterans and service personnel in the community, as well as facilitating remembrance services for Polish colleagues at the Polish war memorial. It happens to have the oldest veteran in the constituency, Flight Lieutenant (retired) Harry Richardson DFC, a 106-year-old world war two hero pilot.

I also recognise the work of the colleagues who help us remember around the world, particularly the Commonwealth war graves staff and the colleagues I used to work with in embassies and the British Council on remembrance events. My former colleague Dr Debanjan Chakrabarti visited a number of Commonwealth war graves in north-east India with me, including the cemetery in Kohima. As those of us who attended Mr Speaker’s remembrance event this morning will know, this year marks the 80th anniversary of the battle of Kohima in April 1944, which was a turning point in the war in Asia. Many believe that the assistance that the Naga people gave British and Indian troops as guides, porters and combatants was critical in our success of that campaign.

I well remember being welcomed to Kohima by the Naga people, visiting the Kohima cemetery high in the Naga hills and walking along row upon row of British and Indian graves. There, I read the Kohima epitaph:

“When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate, which is timely as we are approaching Remembrance Day, but it is always time to remember with gratitude those who have laid down their lives to protect the things that we hold dear—democracy and the right to live our lives and raise our children.

When I think of remembrance, I think of Winston Donnell, murdered on 9 August 1971. The IRA murdered him, but no one was ever made accountable for his murder. Today in the remembrance garden I took the opportunity to remember four Ulster Defence Regiment men murdered at Ballydugan on 9 April 1990: Lance Corporal Bradley, John Birch, who I grew up with at Ballywalter, Michael Adams and Steven Smart. I also took the opportunity to lay a cross in the remembrance garden to remember my cousin Kenneth Smyth, murdered by the IRA on 10 December 1971. Again, no one was ever made accountable. You can understand, Madam Deputy Speaker, why I seek justice for all those people who were murdered. No one was ever made accountable.

I declare an interest as a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, in which I served for three years. I also served in the Royal Artillery for eleven and a half years as a part-time soldier. As a former member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, I am proud of that institution that I served in.

I am thankful for the service of the Royal Ulster Constabulary—those men and women served in their communities knowing that they were a target. I am thankful for the spouses and children who went for days without seeing or hearing from their loved ones as they entered dangerous situations and tried to uphold the law and justice against those who terrorised them and threatened their families and their very lives. I am thankful for their sacrifice of family time and peace at home. I remember their sacrifice and the toll that their service had on their mental health—a price that too many honourable RUC officers still pay to this day—while also having that service distorted and torn apart to pacify a republican rewrite of history, to take a force synonymous with justice, duty and diligence and smear it with accusations of dishonour. I will not allow that to happen in this House. I remember the RUC with great honour, which they earned through blood, sweat and continued tears.

Today, I unapologetically stand on my feet to thank those who served in the Ulster Defence Regiment with the green berets—I still have mine—and the Greenfinches, who were the bravest of women. I stand on my feet to refute those accusations that would make the service of that force anything other than admirable. I thank those Greenfinch women, who worked all night to keep their children safe, and came home and sent their children to school. The lived a dual life for fear that their children would be put at risk if it were known that they were part of the British state. All of us who lived through the terrorism by evil people in both communities have much to be thankful for to those who served. To those veterans of the RUC, the British Army and the Ulster Defence Regiment, and their families, who paid the price of service, I say a big thank you. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them all.

Remembrance in Portsmouth is not just one day a year; it is all year round. The Royal Navy, and those who serve, run through our city’s DNA. I, like so many in Portsmouth, am a very proud cousin, great niece, granddaughter and now mum of service personnel.

Since my election in July and before, it has been a pleasure to meet so many veterans and serving personnel, and those who support our troops at home and at sea, and to witness this year-round remembrance at first-hand. Recently, I attended the 100 years of the Commonwealth memorial on Southsea Common and met my constituent Clive, a standard bearer and Royal Navy veteran who, along with others, come rain or shine, is at every remembrance event in Portsmouth.

I had the privilege of spending the night on His Majesty’s Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier to see her in operation and to listen to current service personnel. It has been brilliant to join the Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast Club for a cracking fry-up at one of their regular breakfast catch-ups, and to meet MOD housing to assess the situation facing our current service personnel.

It was an honour to host Royal Naval Association veterans in Parliament a few weeks ago to talk about life post-service, and an honour for my city to host D-Day 80. Being in the armed forces is like being in a large family, so it was great to visit the Whale Island nursery to see the work it is doing in keeping families together even when, in reality, they are miles apart.

I am proud to be taking part in the armed forces parliamentary scheme. I am also proud to be part of a Government who recognise the service of all our veterans, the importance of quality housing and the need for more and better post service, and who respect the contributions of our veterans. The Government have listened and acted on policies that veterans charities have been calling for, for years: approving veteran cards as voter ID; committing to enacting the armed forces covenant law; and recognising the priority of housing. I look forward to selling poppies again this year with Terry and Denise, and the army of volunteers in my city.

Ahead of all the commemorations this weekend, and ahead of the official remembrance in Portsmouth Guildhall on Remembrance Sunday, I want to put on record my deepest gratitude to those who keep us safe every day and to those who have lost their lives defending our country, in particular those lost at sea. As the “Last Post” rings out across our country, I ask that we hold proudly those who have served and are serving, and their families, close in our hearts.

My constituent and resident of Burgess Hill, Able Seaman George Chandler, was due to lead the blind veterans at the remembrance parade on Remembrance Sunday the weekend after next. Sadly, George died earlier this month. He was 99 years old. I never had the privilege of meeting George, but I have been able to speak to his son Paul, who gave me a wonderful insight into his father. He was full of character and, in Paul’s words, an old rogue.

George was born to a working-class family off the Old Kent Road. When war was declared, aged 14 George stayed in London—he was not evacuated—and experienced the blitz in all its horror. His father, Will, had been a soldier at the Somme, and George was determined that he would not be what he called one of the “poor bloody infantry”. He was not going to go into the Army. When he was still 17, he pestered and pestered the recruiters at the naval office to sign him up. Eventually, they took him on, even though he had not yet reached his 18th birthday.

George saw active service in the channel as a gunner on a boat, with close combat with the Germans occurring very frequently. On D-day, he provided cover for American troops landing on Omaha beach, watching the slaughter before his eyes. He returned from the D-day landings to Newhaven in East Sussex, and saw rows and rows of empty coffins waiting for the dead.

This year, George was one of a handful of remaining veterans who took part in the 80th anniversary commemorations. He went to No. 10 Downing Street, HMS Belfast and the trooping of the colour. This caused George’s family a certain amount of consternation, for George was not a Conservative. His family were terribly worried about what George might say when he met Government Ministers. They had a plan that if George let rip, they would whisk him away in his wheelchair before any embarrassment could be caused. I am pleased to say to Conservative Members that he met Gillian Keegan, Grant Shapps and the former Prime Minister’s wife, and no event occurred.

I asked Paul what George’s messages to the House would be, and the answer—what Paul thought his dad would have said—was characteristically robust. He was passionate about remembering his shipmates, those who gave their tomorrow for our today. He stayed in contact throughout his life with the daughter—

Order.

I will draw my comments to a close, Madam Deputy Speaker. George’s messages would be: “Don’t be stupid like my generation. Don’t do it again. Don’t listen to the stupid politicians. Most of all, we must have more compassion for each other.”

I welcome the Secretary of State to his place, and I am delighted that a fellow Scot has taken the role of Minister for Veterans and People. Scottish communities have played a vital role in the history of our military, and in my constituency more than 4,000 people have served in our armed forces.

The ceremonies of remembrance that we take part in are important for us all, but for thousands of people in my constituency and their families, they speak to their personal experience of service. One of the greatest privileges that I have had in my career was to work for a veterans charity, Sight Scotland Veterans. Among the veterans we supported, too many had experienced isolation and loneliness. One of the veterans I worked with was William Montgomerie, known to everyone as Monty, who had served in Germany, Cyprus and Northern Ireland before leaving the Army in 1977. While serving in the Territorial Army, Monty suffered a head injury that meant that he could not work. That in turn affected his mental health. He said:

“I had gone from working and having the camaraderie and companionship of the Territorial Army to being on my own…The reality is that you might only speak to your Alexa device for days at a time—wishing her a Merry Christmas and no-one else. It can make you feel suicidal.”

Monty is now an eloquent and effective campaigner on the need to provide better support for our veterans. That support is the debt that we owe them as a society, but as we have heard throughout this evening’s debate, too often we fall short. That is why this Government’s commitment to putting the armed forces covenant fully into law, and to creating an armed forces commissioner, are so important. In Scotland, the role of the Scottish Veterans Commissioner has been vital to the assessment of progress in Scotland on securing the aims of the covenant. In her most recent report as commissioner, Susie Hamilton found progress in a number of areas, but also noted:

“Disappointingly, progress towards the delivery of both the Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Pathway and the Veterans Homelessness Prevention Pathway remains notably slow”.

I hope that the Scottish Government will take careful note of those points.

Too many veterans still face poor mental health, and do not have the housing support that they need. That is why the Prime Minister’s commitment that we will repay all those who served us and house all veterans who are in housing need is so important. Our armed forces champion in Fife, Councillor Derek Noble, served in the 105th Regiment Royal Artillery himself. The aims of the covenant are being taken forward through the council, and we are proud that it has achieved the covenant gold standard.

Our veterans have given so much for their country. We must not only mark that with gratitude and respect on Remembrance Day, but ensure that our nation meets all its responsibilities to all our veterans.

It is an honour to pay tribute to our armed forces community this evening, and it is particularly special to be able to pay tribute to my late great-grandfather, Flight Lieutenant Thomas Gittins. He was a tool salesman who joined the RAF Reserves in the hopes of becoming a pilot. He was pretty small in stature, so he was never allowed to get near the cockpit. He fell at the first hurdle, despite being almost small enough to walk under it. He did, however, join 196 Squadron as a rear gunner in Wellington and Lancaster bombers, and between 1940 and 1945 he completed 51 missions, including towing gliders to transport soldiers to Normandy on D-Day. For his service he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was pretty rare for folk serving in his position.

Like so many war heroes, my great-grandfather was intensely humble about his grand achievements. He was too humble to say that his bravery contributed to the preservation of our democracy, and to accept that his service meant that Members of Parliament, including his great-grandson down the line, could stand up here for our country. As with many war heroes, the atrocity of war took its toll on his mental health as he transitioned back to civilian life. Today, we recognise those challenges as combat stress.

Thanks to so many volunteers across my wonderful constituency of Eastbourne—the sunniest in the UK—local veterans have access to more support than ever, including through our Royal British Legion branch, chaired by Alan Leith, who I recruited as my driving instructor. He is supported in chairing the RBL in Eastbourne by his fab secretary, Daphne Geninazza. I have also had the chance to meet inspirational veterans such as Eric Deach and Brian Perry, who is known as the formidable poppy salesman at the Tesco in the Admiral Way retail park in St Anthony’s. There is also local support in the form of the brilliant Eastbourne and District Veterans Association; I was proud to lead on its incorporation as a community interest company.

I pay tribute to the wonderful Barry and Petra Coase and their dog Bella, who are involved with the charity Combat Stress, which supports veterans locally, and to the Blue Van drop-in group. We all need to go even further to support our armed forces, and I am delighted to speak up for them today.

May I begin by congratulating everyone who has made their maiden speech this afternoon and evening? They did so under time pressure, which adds a layer of complexity that I am glad I did not have.

As I mentioned in my maiden speech, I grew up on an RAF base in Berlin. As Members might expect, remembrance is a huge part of my early memories. The services always included veterans of the world wars, but also of Korea, where my grandfather served, the Falklands, and the violence in Northern Ireland.

During the election campaign, I was not surprised by the scale of the veteran community in my constituency of Dunfermline and Dollar. The area has a strong naval tradition, and the rest of Fife has a strong presence throughout the RAF, the Army and other units. It struck me, however, how spread out veterans were. Many were unaware of the size of the veteran community in the area. We must do more locally to bring those communities together. It is clear that the level of support across Scotland and, I am sure, the rest of the UK is mixed, but I fear that in some areas, Scotland is falling behind on these priorities. It is sad that there are no Members from the Scottish National party in the Chamber this evening. We must do better to co-ordinate together.

I want to share the stories of a couple of veterans from my community and constituency. This weekend, I took my two daughters to the Carnegie library, which has a fantastic local history museum. It tells the story of Alexander Malcolm McNeill, who died on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The second story that I want to share is that of Norman Bonnar, who lived in the Garvock area of Dunfermline and served throughout the early part of the war as a Spitfire pilot with the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. On 4 July 1944, he was killed when the Wellington aircraft he was in crashed. He was buried in Dunfermline cemetery and posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Recently, I was pleased to meet some of the team behind the restoration of Spitfire AA810, which has been referred to. It was flown by Norman Bonnar . I hope that we can recognise such efforts by having a memorial to the sacrifices of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit.

I echo what hon. Members have said about making sure that we recognise those veterans who are not always immediately in our thoughts. I am reading “The Lion Above the Door” by Onjali Rauf with my 10-year-old daughter Hannah. I am only halfway through the book, but it is focused on remembering those in India and the far east who served in world war two, and I would recommend it to anyone in this House. Telling the story of people such as Alexander and Norman is just a small sample of what we must do to remember. To return to the main point, we must always ensure that remembrance is translated into support for those currently serving, and those who will serve in the future.

My constituency has a deep historic connection with the UK armed forces. Today it is home to Army Training Centre Pirbright and a substantial part of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. This evening, though, I want to draw attention to two veterans I have had the privilege of meeting and getting to know in Surrey Heath over the past few years. Their stories speak of the unevenness of veterans’ experiences, and of those in communities in the wider armed forces family whose courage and sacrifice may be equal to others’, but who have had to fight for justice and recognition.

Carol Morgan wanted to be in the Army since she was a little girl. It was a commitment, a conviction and a vocation, yet when she was only 24, she was unceremoniously discharged from the Women’s Royal Army Corps solely because of who she loved. Although homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967, those who were gay in the UK armed forces prior to the year 2000 had to keep their identity and feelings hidden. After being reported on by a colleague, Carol recalls relentless interrogations about the most intimate details of her life, and countless humiliations that left her feeling like a criminal. For LGBT veterans, being found to be gay meant being discharged and the loss of their career, livelihood, medals and pension. In some cases, it meant imprisonment. Tragically, the trauma of those experiences led many to take their own life, and thousands of LGBT veterans suffered long-term harm under this atrocious policy.

While I acknowledge that progress has undoubtedly been made—there has been an apology from the former Prime Minister, an LGBT veterans independent review and a £50-million compensation fund—true justice remains elusive. For the approximately 4,000 veterans whose lives were irreparably altered, £12,500 is a meagre offering. I hope that the Government will use this Budget and remembrance season to reconsider the scale of that scheme, and to give those veterans the recognition that they truly deserve. I also note the furore around the Royal British Legion’s poppy badge that has the LGBT flag alongside it. The outrage might be reserved to fringe television stations in the UK, but it is a reminder that the injustices endured by many LGBT veterans are still far from resolved or reconciled, even now in 2024.

I pay tribute to the Gurkha community, whose regimental headquarters are in Surrey Heath. For over two centuries, soldiers from Nepal have fought bravely for the British Army in the UK’s most pivotal conflicts, from both world wars to the Falklands, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their loyalty, their courage and their sacrifice. I particularly want to honour Kaji Sherpa, who I met just a few months ago, a former Gurkha officer and the first serving Gurkha to be granted UK citizenship. As we approach another Remembrance Day, we should commit ourselves to remembering that, for some, the fight for justice continues.

The armed forces covenant is a critical document that has the capability to positively impact the lives of service personnel and veterans, and I am pleased that the Labour Government have committed to enshrining it in law and making it a legally binding commitment, so that nobody from the armed forces family is disadvantaged in any way by their military service to our nation. I am proud that West Notts college in my constituency of Mansfield was recently awarded a defence employer recognition scheme silver award for supporting the armed forces covenant. I congratulate the college, and look forward to seeing many other organisations in my constituency take this important step.

As the employer of a veteran in my parliamentary office, I can see the skills that are invested in service personnel in their training—skills that continue to be useful in my office. Speaking as a former CEO, it is clear to me that the armed forces ethos and work ethic provides advantages to business. The Minister for Veterans and People recounts an operation that he conducted in Afghanistan, and speaks of the commitment that those whom he commanded were able to give to their mission because of their certainty about the wraparound support they would receive, should they require it, on the frontline. It is time for society and the Government to deliver that in a post-service support package, in return for the commitment shown by our armed forces.

Finally, I recently hosted a parliamentary reception for Care after Combat, a charity that mentors veterans in the justice system. I thank the more than 100 parliamentarians who took the time to visit and understand the issues further. Veterans are the largest occupational group represented in the justice system, which is an uncomfortable statistic. Listening to accounts of the charity’s work and the veterans’ stories, it was clear that veterans have a lot to contribute to society, including those with experience of the justice system.

I would like to talk about an issue that affects a small number of British families and veterans: the nuclear test issue in relation to Christmas Island.

For Stephen Greenwood, a constituent of mine from Cullompton, the issue affects him personally. His late father served in the Royal Air Force and was one of many servicemen sent to Christmas Island in the late 1950s under Operation Grapple. Those tests, designed to develop the UK’s nuclear weapons capabilities, subjected military personnel to dangerous levels of radiation, with little recognition of, or concern for, the long-term consequences. Stephen’s father shared with him an abiding, vivid memory of seeing the bones of his fingers as he shielded his eyes from the nuclear detonations—the disbelief as the flash from the detonations illuminated those bones. Like so many, he later suffered from cancer. 

The impact did not stop there. The children of deceased servicemen experienced stark health disparities. Stephen’s siblings who were born before their father was exposed to the detonation experienced good health, but those who were born afterwards experienced poor health. This is a pattern that Stephen has seen not just in his own family, but in the families of veterans he has since encountered.

In the run-up to the election, the previous Government went so far as to make sure that a medal was cast to recognise the servicepeople who were involved in Operation Grapple. In opposition, Labour suggested that they could go further. The veterans I have talked to—for example, those in the Sidmouth branch of the Royal British Legion—feel that the Government need to go further. They would like an annual remembrance event, such as the one I attended in Sidmouth on 31 August, to honour the service of the dwindling number of veterans who saw the nuclear detonations in the Pacific in the 1950s. Additionally, they are advocating for compensation for veterans who have suffered health issues due to exposure to radiation. The families of veterans such as Stephen’s late father have endured the legacy of Christmas Island and cannot afford to wait another decade. They are demanding action in this Parliament.

I want to share my deep gratitude for the people who make up the armed forces community in my constituency, including serving troops and service families, the cadets and reservists at the army reserve centre on Oxford Road and, of course, our veterans, of whom we have almost 3,000. Each and every one of them makes an immense contribution to our country.

In Aylesbury and the villages, remembrance is embedded in the community. In the heart of our town, the war memorial in Market Square commemorates 264 soldiers who died in the first world war and 106 soldiers who died in the second world war, as well as Simon J. Cockton, one of the crew of four in an Army helicopter that was shot down by friendly fire over the Falkland Islands in June 1982. Inscribed on the memorial are the prescient words, “Their memory lives for evermore”. Successive generations have lived up to those words and we will, too: we will never forget.

Helping to preserve the memory is the Aylesbury branch of the Royal British Legion. I thank everyone for their work, including Philip Turner, Lorna Muir and Brian Morris, who serve as president, chairman and vice-chairman respectively. I attended the Aylesbury branch’s launch of the poppy appeal at Friars Square shopping centre. We watched a moving performance by Aylesbury School of Dance and there was a powerful two-minute silence. It was great to see the poppy selling get under way so quickly.

I want to take a moment to recognise the contributions of Commonwealth and other personnel from across the world who have often been overlooked in commemorations, as others have said tonight, but who have played a vital role in protecting and defending the UK and deserve their rightful place in our national story. I welcome the fact that among the wreaths to be laid in Aylesbury on Remembrance Sunday will be a marigold wreath to remember the Indian troops who fought and died in the world wars.

Finally, we must remember not just through words, but through deeds. I am proud that our Government are backing our armed forces communities by putting the armed forces covenant fully into law and establishing an independent armed forces commissioner to improve service life. I am also proud of the measures this Government are taking to ensure that veterans have access to the employment, housing and mental health support that they so desperately need. We are forever indebted to those who serve—those who serve now, those who served in the past and those who lost their lives in doing so. Through our work to strengthen support for our armed forces communities and our veterans, we will honour them.

I also had the opportunity a few weeks ago to meet representatives of Spitfire AA810, to which the hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) and the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts) have already paid fine tribute.

It is appropriate to reiterate the incredible contribution of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, which took more than 26 million images of enemy operations and installations throughout the war. These images were used in the Cabinet war rooms—now the Churchill war rooms—located underneath the Treasury, and were instrumental in the planning of major operations throughout the war. Despite this incredible contribution, and with one of the lowest survival rates of the war—life expectancy in the PRU was around two and a half months—there is no national memorial to the unit. That troubling oversight is why the Spitfire AA810 project is leading the campaign to establish such a memorial to the pilots and navigators.

I take this opportunity to mark the contribution of four veteran pilots from my Sutton and Cheam constituency, three of whom gave their lives and all of whom would be commemorated by this memorial. Cyril Harley Sergeant Kirkus joined 241 Squadron and flew armed reconnaissance missions in Hurricane aircraft. He was killed on reconnaissance operations in Tunisia on 23 April 1943, aged just 27.

Donald Nevill Gallai-Hatchard, who lived with his wife Joyce in Cheam before the war, was a trained photographer. His experience in the PRU saw him posted to work with the American 97th Bomber Squadron operating in Tunisia. In April 1943, he was put on an American Boston aircraft to photograph the results of a raid on Tunis, but he was killed at the age of 31 when the aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He is buried in Tunisia.

Desmond Laurence Matthewman started the war in Bomber Command, flying with 51 Squadron. In February 1941, he brought home a bomber from a mission over Bremen whose tail flying controls had been damaged, making the aircraft almost impossible to control. Once over the UK, he and his crew jumped by parachute, an act which earned him his first Distinguished Flying Cross. On 8 August 1944, he and navigator William Stopford took off on a photographic mission to Munich but were met by the new German Me 262 jet fighter. Matthewman and Stopford were shot down over Ohlstadt in what has been recognised as the first jet aircraft combat kill in history.

Ronald Henry Smyth DFC lived in North Cheam and attended Sutton high school. He joined up in May 1939 and flew Bristol Blenheims with 25 Squadron.

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for putting these names on the record, because it is essential that we have a memorial for these men who lost their lives so bravely.

I completely agree that the importance of this memorial cannot be overstated.

With the battle over, Smyth spent a short time flying Hurricane fighters, and in December 1943 he joined 541 Squadron, a photographic reconnaissance squadron, commanding reconnaissance operations from Gibraltar. He was awarded the DFC in July 1945 for his work in reconnaissance and ended his time in the RAF in October 1945. Following his incredible wartime service, he returned to his pre-war job at the Stationery Office, retiring in 1980 and passing away in 2017 at the age of 96.

It is only right that we take this opportunity to commemorate the contributions of Cyril, Donald, Desmond and Ronald. Will the Minister meet the Spitfire AA810 campaigners and help their campaign to honour the brave contributions of the PRU by delivering the first memorial to its work, outside the Churchill war rooms, where its work made such a profound difference to the course of the war?

Our message from across the House today is thank you: thank you to those who served, to those who died in combat and to the families who supported our armed forces. In Milton Keynes, the city council is proud of its armed forces covenant. As city council cabinet member for housing, I ensured we fulfilled that covenant by giving the highest level of housing to our armed forces, and I am proud that that is now Government policy. I want to give a shout-out to the Milton Keynes armed forces and veterans breakfast club, which provides a lifeline to those currently serving, as well as to veterans.

I will focus my comments on the 7,500 women—six out of 10 of whom were in uniform—who served at Bletchley Park. They are often forgotten. They were in the Women’s Royal Naval Service, the Wrens; the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, the WAAF; and the Auxiliary Territorial Service. They worked around the clock for the war effort to keep the Colossus and Bombe machines running, so that we could break the Nazi code. Their efforts shortened the war by nearly two years, saving countless lives. Their recruitment was a challenge to MI6, as it had never recruited women before. It started recruiting linguists, mathematicians and engineers, and even used a 12-minute cryptic crossword competition to identify talent. However, the women did not have it easy. When Winston Churchill visited, he said:

“I know I told you to leave no stone unturned to get staff, but I didn’t expect you to take me literally.”

Many famous women worked tirelessly during those years, but it was not until the 1970s that anybody, including some of their own, had an idea of the impact they had had on our war effort. The women were not allowed to be classified as code-breakers, and were not allowed the title or the pay, but today, in this House, we can call them veterans and give them the respect they deserve.

One of them wrote this poem:

“In the years yet to come, when grandchildren are many,

I want you to know what I did before you were a granny,

You’ll say to the children, as proud as can be,

‘In the last war, my darling, a WAAF at BP.’”

As the Member of Parliament for the home of the British Army, it is my honour to speak in this debate on remembrance and veterans. I will use my time to share a story from a veteran of the Royal Marines, who celebrates his birthday today. My constituent has given me permission to share his story in the debate, although I have changed his name to protect his privacy.

John served our country with honour. He was discharged from the Royal Marines after three years of service, but life outside the military was hard. His mental health spiralled. He ended up homeless, sleeping rough on the streets, so he went to the local authority for help. This is the part of his story that shocked me, because John was told that before the local authority could help him, it had first to confirm that he really was homeless. Rather than taking John at his word, he was told that he would have to continue to sleep rough in a named location for two weeks and wait for an outreach worker to visit him to verify that he was homeless.

John did as he was ordered, following what he had been taught by his service, but he found staying in the same place meant he was targeted with verbal and physical abuse, so he moved and kept moving—the cycle went on for years. Eventually, he was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and referred to Op Courage. Even then, it took several more years in temporary accommodation, and him witnessing a violent incident, before Op Courage and Help for Heroes were able to get John the specialist accommodation in my constituency that has allowed him to start to move forward with his life. I know just how great a step it was for John to share his story with me.

I take three things from John’s story. The first is that we owe our veterans much more than our silence and respect on Armistice Day; it is our duty to speak up whenever the systems that come from this place fall short. Secondly, safe and accessible housing is vital. That is why I was so proud to hear just a few weeks ago the Prime Minister announce the Government’s commitment to house all veterans. Thirdly, John’s experience tells me that our commitment to respecting every veteran must reach through every Government Department and every level of staff if we are to succeed—from the Secretary of State down to every member of frontline staff. That is the culture change needed to deliver for people such as John who have served our country.

The spirit of remembrance is defined by what we do for one another, and the contribution that every one of us can make. With shared effort, we can build a greater legacy for those who served us—now and in the future.

It is appropriate that I follow my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Alex Baker), as I intend to speak on mental health support for veterans. Ahead of today’s debate, I had a conversation with a very good friend of mine who proudly serves in the Guards. What I am about to say reflects comments that he has given to me, both from his experience and from consultation with his comrades about their personal experiences.

Mental health is at the forefront of concerns for those leaving the armed forces. Serving personnel receive excellent mental health care from specialist clinicians, which is available for up to six months from discharge, but civilian services often do not appreciate the toll that military life takes on the mental and physical health of veterans, so they rely on charities such as Military Veteran Football Club to fill that gap. I was pleased to hear the Secretary of State recognise the support of veterans charities. Veterans also tell me that the pressure of cuts in the armed forces impacts their mental health. As politicians, we must be sure not to ask individual servicemen and women to take up that strain, but instead ask how we can support our troops, and ensure that service personnel know that they are appreciated, they will be properly paid, and there will be time for a family life.

We must also normalise discussion of emotions and feelings to tackle the tragically high level of suicide among veterans. This is a silent killer, affecting people of all ages and ranks. It does not discriminate, and is the tip of an iceberg of depression, anxiety and stress. It can be treated by an early intervention. Young people and our veterans are losing their lives from not only a lack of support, but an ignorance of the support that is available. As a signatory to the armed forces covenant, I welcome the Government’s commitment to put it on a statutory footing. Veterans need to hear from us that they are not just a number, there is no stigma attached to their service, and once they have left the forces we will care for them, in the same way that they took care of us.

It is an honour to speak in this debate ahead of Remembrance Day as we pay tribute to all those who have served our country, and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Each year, we gather to recognise the bravery of our veterans, but true gratitude goes beyond these moments. It means showing up for them when it counts in real and meaningful ways. As the MP for Burton and Uttoxeter, I am proud to represent a community with a long-standing tradition of service.

Many families across Burton, Uttoxeter and our surrounding villages have stories of loved ones who have served and sacrificed. I see veterans every day who continue to give back, contributing to our communities long after they have hung up their uniforms—people such as Carlton Wilkin, a veteran of the Mercian Regiment, who leads the poppy appeal in Burton every year, helping us to remember the values that our veterans live by. They volunteer, mentor and inspire, quietly setting an example of resilience and dedication for us all.

We are also fortunate to have the National Memorial Arboretum on our doorstep—a powerful place of reflection and a tribute to our armed forces. I would welcome all right hon. and hon. Members coming to visit the arboretum to fully appreciate the courage and sacrifices that are represented there.

Let us be clear that our gratitude must be matched with support. Charities such as Care after Combat offer a lifeline for veterans as they transition into civilian life by providing mental health support and giving veterans renewed purpose. Such organisations show us what it means to truly honour service with action.

I am committed, as are the Government, to ensuring that veterans in Burton, Uttoxeter and across the country have access to the services that they need, from mental health support and housing to employment opportunities. We owe them nothing less. Our responsibility is to ensure that they can thrive, and to meet their sacrifices with practical lasting action. As we come together in this remembrance season, let us promise that our gratitude will be lived, not just spoken. Let us commit to being there for veterans, as they were there for us, by building a country and community in which they are fully supported every step of the way.

As we approach this time of remembrance, is it fitting that the national Parliament of the UK reflects on the sacrifice made by so many men and women to ensure that we have the right to be here, in this place, and that our democratic values prevail. Indeed, I understand that the first world war claimed 19 of our predecessors, while the second world war claimed 23.

While we think of the contribution of our veterans, it is wise to take a moment to think about non-combatants, who are also often the victims of war. On 13 March 1941, Bankhead primary school in my constituency was hit by a Luftwaffe bomb. Fortunately, the school had been evacuated, but it was serving as a civil defence station, and 40 people were killed. The reason for the strike was never fully explained; it could have been a remnant of the Clydebank blitz, with one of the Luftwaffe pilots dropping bombs to lighten the load for the way home, or it could have been because of the nearby railway marshalling yards in Yoker. We will never know, but the fact is that 40 civilians died.

Some years ago, Terrence McCourt, a local Knightswood man, began a campaign for a war memorial to be erected in his area. Terrence’s campaign was successful, and a small but very beautiful garden of remembrance was established in my Glasgow West constituency. Regular events take place there to remember important dates such as Armistice Day, VJ Day and VE Day. On Remembrance Sunday, many of us will stand in Glasgow’s George Square to watch the march of veterans and current servicemen and women, as well as of representatives of the emergency and uniformed services.

Sadly but inevitably, the number of veterans diminishes every year, so it is more important than ever that their memory is not allowed to fade. Unfortunately, neither world war was the war to end all wars—the events of the past century are sadly testament to that. As parliamentarians, we must be dedicated to the eradication of conflict through peaceful and democratic means. That is a worthy objective to which I hope we all subscribe, but it is one that remains in peril in this increasingly dangerous conflict-torn world. For the sake of this generation, and generations yet unborn, we must redouble our efforts to support diplomatic and peaceful means of resolving even the most seemingly intractable situations. After all, we cannot make peace by talking only to our friends. As Gandhi put it, an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

At the heart of my constituency lies Carlisle castle, home to the museum of the Border Regiment, the excellent Cumbria Museum of Military Life. The Border Regiment has a long and proud record of service and was the first British unit to join a major engagement by glider, during the invasion of Sicily in the second world war. The regiment went on to serve throughout the Italian campaign, and I wish to pay particular tribute to those who served in that campaign.

My dad was just 20 when he set sail for the Italian mainland, but the liberation of Italy had begun some months earlier with the invasion of Sicily. That invasion cost the lives of 6,000 allied troops, including men from Carlisle’s Border Regiment who were killed when their gliders failed to make land. The invasion of the mainland followed, but the allies encountered increasingly difficult terrain. In particular, Monte Cassino became the scene of some of the most hellish encounters of the second world war. Finally, in the early hours of 18 May, the British and Polish troops surrounded the town of Cassino and forced a German retreat. A couple of weeks later, Rome fell, marking a significant milestone in the Italian campaign.

Sadly for those who served, their recognition was overshadowed by the events on the Normandy beaches. To add further insult to injury, a perception grew that those serving in Italy were sitting out the real fighting of the second world war, and the myth of the D-day dodgers was born. Nothing could have been further from the truth: infantry losses on both sides made Italy the most costly campaign of the second world war in terms of casualties suffered by infantry forces. That is why I believe that in this, the 80th year since Monte Cassino, it is right that that battle is commemorated as other key battles of the second world war have rightly been.

It is an honour to be given an opportunity to speak this evening as we look ahead to this year’s remembrance events across the country, and as we recognise the service and courage of the exceptional men and women who helped safeguard our values and freedom. My contribution seeks to commemorate some of the local effort from my constituency.

Perhaps the biggest contribution of Alloa to the D-day landings took place at the now gone McLeod and Sons shipyard. The workers there laboured day and night to refit ships for war, including around 130 of the tank landing craft for Operation Neptune. Indeed, a message from their lordships at the Admiralty was sent to McLeod and Sons after the war, congratulating the entire workforce on their “magnificent effort during hostilities”.

Over in Grangemouth, what was planned to be the country’s largest commercial airfield became a fighter base to defend against bombing raids. Once the fear of airstrikes had subsided, it was designated as a training centre for daring young pilots to learn to fly the iconic Spitfire. More than 60 young men from all over Britain and the Commonwealth, as well as from Poland, Holland and what was then Czechoslovakia, died as student pilots, along with some 20 ground crew who also paid the ultimate price while serving there. Today, a replica Spitfire on Bo’ness Road reminds us of their sacrifice, with thanks to the members of the 1333 Grangemouth air cadet squadron for their efforts in pushing for that memorial more than a decade ago.

Veterans of our armed forces deserve not just our respect and gratitude, but our practical and meaningful help as they seek to find a place in civilian life. I commend organisations such as the Falkirk Veterans and the Wee County Veterans from Clackmannanshire. The bond among our military personnel extends well beyond service, and veterans’ groups such as those in my constituency play a phenomenal role in so many ways.

There is currently a difference in opinion between the Royal British Legion and many in the veterans community as to the consequences of cutting the Armed Services Advice Project. Personally, I feel that the veterans have legitimate concerns about the removal of ASAP: some have told me that an in-person interaction with an ASAP adviser was the difference between life and death. On the face of it, I share the same reservations as many veterans, as replacing ASAP with a call centre could be a potentially fatal reduction in service provision, and I urge the RBL to reconsider. Over the last 14 years, this country has seen what happens when austerity takes hold and vital services are sacrificed. Everyone deserves better, especially our veterans.

As a newly elected Member of this House, it was my great privilege and honour to attend the opening of the House of Commons garden of remembrance today, and to place my cross of remembrance there on behalf of my constituents. Across West Dunbartonshire, just as we do across the nation, we will gather to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our freedoms and protect our way of life.

One of the memorials that I will attend on Remembrance Sunday is at Clydebank town hall in my home town. Our town hall memorial contains the names of those fallen in all wars, and includes the names of five brothers, Andrew, Walter, James, John and Daniel Munn, who all perished in the first world war—five brothers, all lost. It is symbolic of the scale of suffering and the sacrifice of our nation.

Clydebank also suffered dreadfully during the second world war across the nights of 13 and 14 March 1941, the blitz. It suffered the worst destruction and civilian loss of life in all of Scotland. At least 1,200 people lost their lives, and of the 12,000 homes in Clydebank, only eight remained undamaged.

In West Dunbartonshire, we are deeply proud of our armed forces personnel, veterans and the families who support them. Theirs is the ultimate public service. As a Government, therefore, we must ensure that our veterans have access to the support they need. We must commit to supporting those who serve and have served us.

The Royal British Legion and Poppyscotland’s manifesto includes recommendations that the Government can take to improve the lives of our armed forces community, such as “Ask the question”, which seeks to ensure that all public bodies ask individuals whether they or an immediate family member have served in the armed forces. That would be recorded and published to understand needs and to provide appropriate support.

On both sides of the House, hon. Members can truly remember by ensuring that a better deal for our armed forces community remains high on our parliamentary agenda.

We have heard many powerful and moving contributions, the last of which will be from Dave Robertson.

I closely associate myself with all the remarks that have been made in the debate about the work of the Royal British Legion, and all it does to support remembrance, particularly in November. When November rolls around, I make sure to clear time to remember Charles Leslie Whitehead and William Arnold Robertson, my taid and my grandpa, who saw service in the second world war and in the Pacific in Korea respectively.

We owe our veterans much more than two minutes a year, and remembrance should go further than Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. It should be something that anybody, anywhere in the country can take part in at any time by taking the time to remember somebody—on their birthday, an anniversary or just a Tuesday.

That is why I am proud to host the National Memorial Arboretum in my Lichfield constituency. It is a wonderful venue and a fantastic place for people to carry out that remembrance if they so choose. There are now more than 400 memorials at the arboretum, and I strongly advise any right hon. or hon. Member who has not had the opportunity to visit yet to do so, so that they can take the opportunity to remember the people who are pertinent to them, or even the strangers who they have never met and will never meet, but who gave their time and themselves, and in some cases paid the ultimate sacrifice, to protect our way of life.

We now come to the Front Benchers. I call the shadow Minister.

It is a great privilege to rise to respond on behalf of His Majesty’s loyal Opposition in this debate. I congratulate all hon. Members who made a maiden speech, not least my hon. Friend the Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) on her excellent speech. Although it was not a maiden speech, I also thank the hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) for mentioning those who were lost at sea. It is far too often overlooked that those who were lost at sea in various conflicts have no grave that families can visit, but their sacrifice was no less important and should be no less remembered at this time.

It is rare to sit in the Chamber and enjoy a debate where there is so much common cause on both sides of the House. I join other hon. Members in congratulating the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot on its 360th anniversary—I do not believe the vicious rumour doing the rounds in Parliament that that was the name borne by the Royal Marines when the Minister joined up all those years ago. It is as it should be that we join together as a nation and look towards remembrance as one. Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day are when we pause, reflect, remember and pay thanks to all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice that allows us to live in the peace and freedom we enjoy in our country today.

Remembrance means different things to different people. When the “Last Post” sounds in Ballater in two weeks’ time, I will be thinking of my great-uncle Samuel Coyle, who fell at Gallipoli in 2015, one week short of his 21st birthday, and lies buried at Pink Farm cemetery in Turkey. I will think of my great-grandfather, who endured and survived the Somme battlefield; my paternal grandfather, who fought with the 8th Army at El-Alamein, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany, and survived to tell the tale; my maternal grandfather, who for over two decades served in the Royal Navy; and my godfather, a Royal Marine, who served from the Falklands to Northern Ireland.

I will also think of my friends who served and are still serving in far more recent conflicts and operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the various but less reported naval operations of the last 20 years—our continued presence in the south Atlantic, our oilfield patrols off Iraq and the anti-piracy operations in Somalia to name but a few. As we have heard this afternoon, we all remember individuals, family and close friends who chose to serve our country and were prepared to—and, in some cases, did—pay the ultimate sacrifice, and we do remember them.

When we collectively think of remembrance as a nation and when we think of veterans, for many the image conjured up is of the old soldier who landed at D-day proudly marching with his oppos past the Cenotaph, a survivor of a long-distant conflict. They remain rightly at the forefront of our thoughts this year as we commemorate 80 years since D-day, Monte Cassino and other hugely significant operations in that world conflict, which was fought to defend freedom and democracy. It was our victory in that conflict that remains the reason why we can stand in this place today. We remain forever in the debt of that greatest generation.

We must also remember, however, the veterans from much more recent conflicts—the much smaller group of men and women who fought far from our shores in the name of Queen and country, but who, unlike previous generations, did not return to a country with a shared experience of war and conflict. In many cases, they returned to a country that did not really want to know. Being a veteran of a late 20th-century or early 21st-century conflict is, in 2024, far removed from the experiences of those who fought between 1914 and 1918 and between 1939 and 1945. Supporting this new generation is far harder for those charities and organisations that do so much unseen work all year round, not just during this time of remembrance.

It was for this new generation of former servicemen and women that the former Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer, to whom I pay tribute, was determined to fight. That is why he was determined to make this country the best in the world in which to be a veteran. It is also why we as a Government established the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, put the armed forces covenant into law and set up Defence Transition Services, providing tailored support to help service people with their transition to civilian life. We launched Operation Fortitude to end homelessness, Operation Prosper to support veterans into work after they leave the armed forces, Operation Restore to support the physical needs of veterans and Operation Courage to support veterans’ mental health. We invested £400 million to modernise thousands of military homes, provided funding for armed forces charities to carry out their vital work, and introduced a new veterans railcard to help veterans reconnect both with loved ones and with new training and work opportunities. We supported veterans through the provisions in our Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021 and the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023. I know the Minister is aware that the repeal and replacement of that Act is rightly causing concern in the community of veterans who fought during the troubles.

We are near unique as a nation in honouring the memory of all those who have fallen, those who have served and those who serve in the way we do. It is to our credit as a country. There are still groups that feel forgotten. For example, as has been mentioned, there are the veterans of our nuclear tests, with many still fighting for recognition of what they were asked to do and for what they endured many years on for their country. There is the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit of the RAF, which has also been mentioned. The unit had one of the highest attrition rates in world war two, but it still has no national memorial, and its members must also be remembered in the coming days.

This year when the “Last Post” sounds, it will be some 16 years since, as a very young sub-lieutenant, I had the privilege of meeting the three remaining veterans of world war one—Harry Patch, Henry Allingham and Bill Stone—at the Cenotaph as we marked 90 years since the end of that war, the war supposedly to end all wars. This year, let us pause and think of those unseen veterans who walk among us today: those who did not return, and their friends and their family still living with the loss. Let us also remember those who, as we sit here tonight, remain prepared to give everything for our nation. Let us recommit to do for them what a grateful nation should, and let us redouble our efforts to truly make this country the best in the world in which to be a veteran.

It is indeed 360 years since the formation of the Royal Marines and they are still going strong. I will refuse to take advice from the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) on face cream but it was a privilege to take the salute just the other day from both the Commandant General Royal Marines and the Commandant of the US Marine Corps, which demonstrates the strong ties across the pond with the US between those Marine units.

I am grateful to Members for their thoughtful reflections on remembrance and the contributions of veterans to this country. We have heard moving contributions from Members reflecting on their personal experience of service, and as I am sure they would testify there is an unspoken oath of allegiance between service personnel. Indeed, it knows no bounds; it is the glue that holds the forces together, and that oath has always extended to the fallen on the battlefield and beyond. For serving personnel and veterans, remembrance is an enduring reflection of that oath, and on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day I will remember the individuals who have gone before us but also those I have stood next to who have been killed or wounded—after five tours of Afghanistan, one of Northern Ireland, and multiple of the Arabian gulf, eastern Europe and Africa, there have been many.

Importantly, we must remember those who will never see that smile again or see them laugh or hold them close once more. It is a time for them, and those that did not come home to see their children, their partners, or indeed their loved ones or their friends. It is our duty to remember them all.

But remembrance is not only about fallen comrades and veterans; it is a rare moment when the nation comes together, from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. And it is a reminder to everyone in every generation across the whole country that the freedoms we all enjoy—the freedoms of speech, of equality, of quality of life—were all hard fought for and hard-won. Freedom is not free, and it is something in the fractious world we live in today that individually or collectively we should not take for granted.

Those freedoms are forged from the sacrifice of the young men and women of the Army, Navy and our Air Force who stepped forward when the country needed them: the sacrifices of the few who are still owed so much by the many; the sacrifices on the high seas, in the air, on the beaches and the landing grounds and in the fields, and in the streets from world war one to Operation Overlord, where they secured a beachhead in Normandy that would free a continent from Nazi tyranny and usher in the rules-based international system; and the sacrifices of 80,000 British service personnel who fought in the forgotten war on the Korean peninsula to uphold the rights and freedoms enshrined in that rules-based international system. All are memorialised in stones outside the MOD, of which one says,

“A distant obligation honourably discharged.”

There were the sacrifices in the south Atlantic, on the open water, in the skies and on the windswept heaths, for the right of the Falkland Islanders to choose their own sovereign future. And the sacrifices of service personnel in desert fatigues who liberated Kuwait and fought in Iraq, and those in the operational areas whom I served alongside in the long troubles of Northern Ireland, the middle east, Africa, Afghanistan and eastern Europe who sacrificed so much to uphold the right to self-determination and give freedom and democracy a chance to take root. And the sacrifices we cannot talk about because we do not comment on certain issues.

It is thanks to all those who have served and sacrificed and whom we honour on Remembrance Day that we can sit here, as democratically elected MPs, and debate the future of this wonderful country. Few, if any, outside the armed forces sign a contract that puts their life on the line and those who have served or continue to serve often pay the price for that service, through the long-term mental or physical scars, the impact on families and on their children, or through the painful memories or indeed the longing for the camaraderie and service they left behind. It is my opinion that those who serve through one way or another serve until the day they die. That is why this Government of service are committed to standing with members of our armed forces and their families long after they leave the services.

Syd Little was part of the team which delivered life-saving supplies to Mount Sinjar on 9 August 2014, in the operation now known as Operation Shader. Flight Sergeant Little lost his life this weekend to cancer. Does my hon. and gallant Friend agree that service people face some of their greatest challenges on their exit from service and that the veterans strategy is essential to ensuring that those challenges are not equal to those they faced while serving?

There are few fights as valiant as that against the barbaric regime of ISIS. My thoughts go to my hon. Friend’s constituent, and his family and loved ones who were left behind. This Government are committed to supporting the welfare of veterans and those who are serving, and there will be more details to follow. As a veteran, as the Minister responsible for veterans, people and personnel, I do not take these commitments lightly.

This Government have already ensured that those who defend democracy will have the right to exercise that democracy at the polling station. In just over 100 days, we have made the veterans ID card a form of voter ID. The Prime Minister has also confirmed that veterans will rightly be prioritised in accessing housing. Furthermore, we are determined to deliver on our manifesto commitments to fully incorporate the armed forces covenant in law, get rid of the postcode lottery, and give veterans the support that they need on mental health, employment and housing. We will also scrap visa fees for non-UK veterans who have served for four or more years, and for their families.

I congratulate those who gave their maiden speech today. There were some fantastic speeches, particularly from my hon. Friends the Members for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling), and for Stafford (Leigh Ingham). They outlined so many veterans’ issues, but also talked about the comprehensive military presence in their constituencies. I also pay tribute to the multiple individuals with military experience in the House. The hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) served in 2010. I probably dropped into the area he was in. I was very well hosted by his regiment or brigade. I was often met on the ground with a fiery reception, but also some good banter. It is a great tribute to the House that we have so many people with military experience, and like all Members, I look forward to their contributions in this great place.

Several issues were raised today. The hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul), the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts), my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) and the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Luke Taylor) paid tribute to the brave pilots of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, who did so much intelligence gathering during the second world war. Without their work on operations, none of those operations would have taken place. Given that the unit had one of the highest casualties rates of all those in the skies—I think it was 40% plus—it is right to pay tribute to it by moving forward with a memorial; I fully support that.

I say in response to the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd that I met the Welsh Veterans’ Commissioner, Colonel Phillips, last Thursday. I spoke to him about his role, responsibilities and potential changes for a good hour and a half. Several Members have brought up the issues of Northern Ireland. Our Government recognise the important service of veterans and the sacrifices they made to keep people safe in Northern Ireland during the troubles. I am a Northern Ireland veteran. I give the House my word that any veteran will get the legal and welfare support that they need to ensure that the stresses of any action that we move forward with are minimised.

Members brought up various charities. Across the veterans sector and the armed forces community, there are more than 1,000 charities. They are primarily led by individuals who give up their spare time to support the armed forces and veterans. As we move towards Remembrance Day, it is worth remembering not just those who have served or are serving, but those who support those in the armed forces, primarily in the UK’s amazing charitable sector, which has such an important role.

My hon. Friend the Member for Glenrothes and Mid Fife (Richard Baker) brought up mental health. Op Courage has had 30,000 referrals. It is doing a fantastic job. I have visited multiple NHS trusts that are delivering fantastic partnership working to ensure that veterans get the mental health support that they require.

The treatment of the LGBT community from 1967 to 2000 was completely and utterly abhorrent. Some of the stories that I have heard have been absolutely harrowing. I had the pleasure of attending the LGBT awards last week. We have delivered 32 of the 49 recommendations from the Lord Etherton review, and we are working hard to deliver an appropriate financial redress scheme, so that we can close out that review in a timely and effective manner.

I had the great pleasure of meeting the nuclear test veterans; that has been absolutely superb. We have built up a relationship through a cadence of meetings to ensure that there is communication and education, and to look into some of their issues relating to files. We are working collaboratively on that.

It would be unfitting of me to finish without saying that I have heard some harrowing stories today of the sacrifices paid by so many, including so many stories of the loss of loved ones. I think especially of the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who lost some of his loved ones in the troubles. I have also heard amazing stories about some of our longest-serving veterans, including Flight Lieutenant Harry Richardson, who is now over 100 years old, which is truly remarkable. The hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett) also outlined the amazing world war two story of George.

As I conclude, it is worth noting the broader message that is wrapped into remembrance. Yes, this is a time to remember—to remember that freedom is not free, and that every decision we make in this House, or in this Government, has an impact. That does not mean that we should shy away from difficult decisions on whether to deploy our armed forces. We should, rather, acknowledge and champion the fact that our armed forces are there for a reason: to protect us at home and abroad, to protect our way of life, and to ensure that the freedom we enjoy today is passed down to our children, and their children.

Our armed forces are the guarantors of everything we hold dear. To risk life and limb for one’s nation is, I think, the noblest of all traditions, but if service is anything, it is above politics. That is why I stand ready to work with all hon. and right hon. Members so that veterans and those serving can live a life, in and outside the armed forces, worthy of the incredible contribution they made to this nation. Today, in advance of Remembrance Day, we come together, united, to say thank you to those who have served, and to honour all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Remembrance and the contribution of veterans.