The Battle of Britain

Gregory Campbell Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Cameron Thomas (Tewkesbury) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the matter of commemorating the Battle of Britain.

Thank you for chairing this debate, Sir Desmond; it is an honour to serve under your chairship. I thank all those who will contribute to this debate and the Veterans Minister, whose presence is always greatly appreciated.

In 1940, the six-week battle of France saw British soldiers, including those of the Gloucestershire Regiment, fighting side by side with Belgian, Dutch, French and Polish soldiers against the advancing Nazis. Eventually pushed back to the edge of the western front to the beaches at Dunkirk, British troops were evacuated alongside their valiant but defeated allies to Britain over the 10 days to 4 June. With France lost to the Nazis, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill declared on 18 June 1940 that

“the ‘Battle of France’ is over. I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin.”

He continued:

“The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.”—[Official Report, 18 June 1940; Vol. 362, c. 60.]

Within weeks, this very Hall had been struck by German bombs, as had the Elizabeth Tower and the House of Lords, while the House of Commons lay in ruins.

Over the almost four months of the battle of Britain, this island suffered sustained bombardment as the Nazis, through the Luftwaffe, desperately—and in vain—tried to destroy the Royal Air Force and break British morale. They failed, and the battle of Britain stands proudly alongside the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo among our greatest military successes, but it is so much more. Every day across these isles, the legacy of the battle of Britain is lived. Modern culture and, to a significant degree, our national identity have been built on it.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Member on this debate and his magnificent introduction. I am sure he spent some time preparing it, and it is a tremendous introduction. Would he agree that what he is outlining, and I think we all have to commit ourselves to this, is not just that our generation remembers the tremendous sacrifice made all those years ago, but that the coming generation—those born in the past 25 years—remembers, so that we never repeat any of the mistakes of the past and that we achieve victories such as the one he is describing?

[Cameron Thomas]

The hon. Member speaks acutely to the point of this debate, which is that we must not forget what this country both suffered and achieved, and that we must support our current generation in the challenges it faces.

One toils to resolve any other historic snapshot that so well encapsulates the British mindset: the gradual withdrawal of liberty across western Europe before, on this small outpost, those forces—British, Belgian, Czechoslovakian, French, Irish, Polish, Commonwealth and even a handful of Americans—came together for Europe’s final stand to halt the fascist advance in its tracks and set the stage to push the Nazis back across Europe.

The iconic airframes of the battle of Britain memorial flight remain the most celebrated of fly-pasts at air shows and ceremonies throughout the year. I love a Eurofighter Typhoon as much as anybody, but, respectfully, I am really waiting to hear the Hurricane, Lancaster and Spitfire. I recall waiting for Iron Maiden to take the stage at Download festival in 2013, when the audience roared for the Spitfire fly-past, which Bruce Dickinson had squared away through his friends at the BBMF. Even at a festival where I had seen Motörhead and Queens of the Stone Age for the first time, the Spitfire remains the standout memory. Through those historic exploits of the Royal Air Force, air power is today one of Britain’s most recognised and celebrated brands. On the shoulders of the Hurricane and Spitfire, the Hawks of the Red Arrows spearhead British soft power across the globe, not just a display team but a diplomatic force all their own.

In commemorating the battle of Britain, the greatest tribute we can pay to its victors is to apply those lessons that can be learned from it. The stage is already set. As they did following the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s, our armed forces, following years of diminishment, once more face the likelihood of a kinetic war against a battle-hardened and well-resourced aggressor. By July 1940, despite popular belief to the contrary, the RAF had ramped up production to such an extent that RAF Fighter Command was more than a match for the Luftwaffe, and held a minor numerical advantage.