Today we celebrate Armed Forces Day – an important opportunity to honour the men and women of our Armed Forces community.
It was great to spend the day at our event in Llanelli, where Llanelli Veterans Association, the Royal British Legion, Town Council and Rev Eldon Phillips organised a parade and a day of activities for adults and children.
Earlier this week I travelled up to Hartlepool to launch Labour’s pledges for the Armed Forces. These include lifting the public sector pay cap and give personnel a fair pay rise. We will also ensure that all service members have access to decent accommodation, without the threat of being forced into the private rented sector.
We will give personnel a voice and consult on introducing an Armed Forces’ representative body. We will scrap the dodgy outsourcing deals that do not deliver. And we will ensure that all service children can get a good school place.
Here’s a clip from my speech during the debate on Armed Forces Day we had in Parliament earlier this week: