Veterans UK

Navendu Mishra Excerpts

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Westminster Hall

[Navendu Mishra (Stockport) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I start by congratulating my good and hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Gill Furniss) on securing this debate. I think that I put in a similar application. She was successful, but it is a privilege for me to speak in this debate and I thank her for it.

Lots of local groups in my constituency and across Greater Manchester support veterans, and I am grateful to all of them. I will name a couple of them during my speech, but most importantly, I want to name Stockport Armed Forces & Veterans Breakfast Club, which I have attended several times. It does a lot of work supporting people not just in my constituency but across the borough.

I will echo several points made by my hon. Friend, but I want to highlight the fact that it is unacceptable that the Ministry of Defence has confirmed no additional funding support for veterans to deal with the cost of living increases. A recent report tells us that, in the last year, the Royal British Legion has reported issuing 20% more grants to help with living costs. We all know that mortgages have gone up, food inflation is close to 20% and the cost of living is biting hard. Veterans and some serving personnel and their families are using food banks, which is a total disgrace.

The next Labour Government have a plan to change the armed forces covenant, which is an informal agreement; We will fully incorporate the covenant in law and fulfil the important moral contract that society makes with those who serve. I do not understand why the Government cannot do that now. My local authority has signed up to the covenant, but support for veterans is often a postcode lottery. We need to change that.

A lot of support for veterans is provided by the third sector, which is welcome, but much greater Government involvement and support is needed for those organisations. According to the Office for National Statistics almost 4% of the population have previously served in the armed forces. The numbers are quite serious and we need to offer more support.

A constituent contacted me recently—I will not name him—to make a point about armed forces reservists

“not being allowed to stay in till they are 60”.

He says that the Ministry of Defence

“are doing this so they do not pay out a pension at the age of 60, but other services allow you to stay till 60. The armed forces reserves are losing highly skilled people but at the same time recruitment is at”

an all-time low.

“At present my Regt is below 50% in strength. By the MOD carrying out this type of behaviour I believe we are being discriminated against.”

He then asks me to raise that in the House of Commons, so I raise it now on his behalf. I will follow it up in a letter to the Minister and I hope to have a response that I can feed back to my constituent.

The shadow Minister and I recently attended an armed forces parliamentary scheme breakfast with the Fighting With Pride organisation. My hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough has already mentioned the historical injustice that affected many LGBT+ veterans and that needs to be resolved. It is less of a party political issue and more an issue of justice. We need to make sure that all political parties work together and that people of all orientations are welcome in the armed forces. We must also ensure that the people who were kicked out and dishonourably discharged get the justice and respect they deserve.

I will finish on that point and I hope the Minister will address particularly the issues about pensions and LGBT+ veterans.