Military Covenant

Debate between Mike Hancock and Jim Murphy

Wednesday 16th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Murphy]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very important point. I have responded to each point raised in turn, and I will continue to do so.

We are asking the Conservative party to maintain its manifesto commitment, and to vote for it. We will vote for its manifesto commitment today, and the country will expect Conservative Members to do the same.

Today’s debate also provides an opportunity for the Government to reflect again on their decision on the chief coroner’s office. It would give families who have lost those closest to them, often in tragic, painful and extremely difficult circumstances—the type of people whom the hon. Member for Colchester was talking about—the right to the best possible investigations and military inquests into those deaths. On this day of all days, when the constitutional relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords is being considered, it is important that we listen to the House of Lords on that important issue.

I turn to the wider of issue of Afghanistan and its impact on the covenant. We have made it clear that we will support the Government on Afghanistan whenever possible, as we did on Monday. I welcome their continued commitment to update the House on progress there, particularly in the diplomatic effort, which seems far less advanced than the military campaign.

Those injured in Afghanistan face enormous burdens and a life of dramatic change. That places a huge responsibility on the Government and politicians of all parties to support them, so that the country fulfils its responsibility to them. Public services, public servants, charities, the private sector and Government must continually consider how best to support all our forces, particularly those who are injured. We should try to generate consensus on that at every possible opportunity.

[Mr Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South) (LD)]

Why does the shadow Secretary of State think that the wording in the Armed Forces Bill, which reflects the will of the country to honour the covenant, is not what the people want? How does he think it fails to cover all the issues that he is talking about? A lot of armed forces personnel and their supporters undoubtedly believe that it does cover them.

[Mr Murphy]

As I said earlier, the British Legion has been pretty critical and straightforward about that. The problem is the word “covenant” being used but not given a legal definition, which allows Ministers and Governments of all parties to interpret and reinterpret it in an annual report. That is why the principle of legal definition is important.

[Mr Hancock]

We had the same problem when the last Government refused to accept their duty of care responsibilities. They did that because nobody could clearly define, in rigid legal terms, what a duty of care was.

[Mr Hancock]

No, you didn’t. The hon. Gentleman, who was a Minister and before that was on the Defence Committee, will remember from his experiences on the Committee that the Labour Government’s big failure on the duty of care was that they were unable to define clearly what it meant.

[Mr Murphy]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point, but I listened very carefully to the British Legion’s campaign for the legal principle, and to its observations of the clear, glaring weaknesses in the current arrangements.