Remembrance, UK Armed Forces and Society

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

I join colleagues in thanking all those who currently serve and who have served previously, and, of course, those who served and gave their lives for our freedoms. Freedom is not free. There have been huge sacrifices by our armed forces in pretty much every decade for the last 150 years. Today, of course, we think of the two great wars, but there have been other conflicts in which people from my constituency have served, including Korea, operations in Sierra Leone and ongoing operations in the Sahel right now. Of course, there has also been the distinguished service of many hon. and gallant Members in Northern Ireland, not least my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) and others.

If I may, I would like to go on a brief tour—not an operational tour, but a tour of thanks—of my constituency and talk about the huge contribution that Shropshire folk make to defence. First, MOD Donnington, which is a huge base, is the home of the 11th Signal Brigade, West Midlands, of the 15th Royal Logistic Corps and of other operations perhaps not so well known. There has been a huge investment in the Defence Fulfilment Centre in the last few years. Both uniformed and civilian personnel have made a huge contribution to the covid effort in making sure that kit and equipment was distributed around the country. I would like to pay tribute to all those who have played a part in that effort and continue to do so. I would also like to recognise the work of the Royal Military Police, and in particular 174 Provost Company, Royal Military Police. The company is not particularly well known in the county of Shropshire, but it does a huge amount of work across the county and beyond.

I hope those who are part of the armed forces parliamentary scheme RAF will take time at some point, post covid, to visit RAF Cosford. As many will know, it is the second largest operational RAF base in the world, with several thousand personnel and a range of activities contributing to UK defence and security, of which I will mention just a few now. We have the Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering, the Defence School of Photography, and we have an RAF band, which is good news. Of course, we—I say we, but I mean the UK—provide international personnel, not just UK personnel, with defence training, particularly in engineering. There is also the RAF School of Physical Training, perhaps somewhere I should visit more often, but I am none the less very proud to have it in my constituency. We have 605 Squadron, which many will know provides logistics and police personnel mobilisation in support of RAF commitments around the world. There is also No. 1 Radio School—without signals, where would we be? I would like to pay tribute to them.

While the Minister for Defence People and Veterans is on the Front Bench, I would like to pay tribute to him and to his personal service in the armed forces. I say to him that I am pretty sure the Government will be smart enough not to move him out of the Government, but I hope, very selfishly, they will not promote him—although perhaps he could be promoted to Minister of State within the Department—but let him keep his veterans hat on, because he is doing a fantastic job in that role. I pay tribute to him.

I would like to put on record my thanks to all those related to the men—and it was mostly men at the time of the first world war—of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. Over 5,000 fell in that awful war, and it then amalgamated into the Light Infantry and is now the Mercian Regiment. I pay tribute to the Mercian Regiment in Shropshire as well. In my final few seconds, I would like to pay tribute to all the women who serve in the armed forces. I am glad that we have had a particular highlight from my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Sarah Atherton) about her service and what she is going to do to ensure that we continue to expand the role of women in the armed forces. Freedom is not free, as I said when I started. We pay tribute to all of those who have fallen and we pay tribute to those who continue to serve.