The Veterans’ Minister Johnny Mercer has said it is important that people remember veterans outside of the times of remembrance and ensure that those who served are remembered the rest of the year.
Mr Mercer also hit back at Labour’s John Healey, saying he was ‘not going to take any criticism from someone who hasn’t lifted a finger to help people like I have over the years.’
Speaking on GB News Johnny Mercer said: “I have been in Plymouth; 15,000 American soldiers left just up the road here, and got on the boats and went overto Omaha Beach, and we had a pretty special ceremony down by the waterfront with a lady who was there marking the boats and getting them onto the boats.
“It’s an extraordinary day, isn’t it, and I think a good moment to pause and reflect on the sort of mind blowing scale of their achievement and their courage and their sacrifice and the example they set for generations of us afterwards who served.
“It’s important in going into elections that veterans know what the offer is from all of the parties who they choose to vote for, and that’s what we’re doing today when it comes to veterans from the Conservatives.
“We’ve changed what it means to be a veteran in the UK. We changed the structure of government to have a Veterans’ Minister in the cabinet and a separate Veterans Department outside of the Ministry of Defence, which I’m lucky enough to lead.
“We’ve used that to deliver massive multi million programmes across health, housing and education, across dealing with addiction and substance abuse and life chances and all these things, to improve what it means to be a veteran in the UK.
“But obviously we want to go further, and we want to make sure that these rights are enshrined in law so we never go back to what it was like when I first came into politics and wanted to change it.
“We want to make sure that veterans keep more of the money they’re entitled to by removing compensation schemes and things like that from pension credit, which affects how much money you get, particularly in older life.
“And it’s these sort of details that go beyond the remembrance that is really important that we do on days like this that actually change what it means to be a veteran the rest of the year that we’re all about at the Office of Veterans’ Affairs.
“So I’ve spent a lot of time with D Day veterans over the last couple of weeks, really, and their number one fear is that people forget, that they don’t remember the scale of their sacrifice.
“They literally gave their today for our tomorrow. And I think that we all have a duty, not just those who work in the veteran space, but the entire country to understand what was done to give us the incredible gifts of freedom that we have today.
“I didn’t go out and launch [the policy] this morning. I think as we come to the end of D Day, I think it’s important to look at not only just these moments and remembering in this way, but what it feels like to be a veteran the rest of the time.
“And I’m not surprised John Healey says that. I mean he’s tried to sort of block everything I’ve done in the veterans’ space as Labour do, they don’t really believe in these things.
“But I’m not doing it for that. I’m not doing it for votes, I do it because it’s the right thing to do.
“I became a politician because I was fed up of how it felt to be a veteran. And to be honest, part of that was watching people remember, very solemnly and having photographs taken themselves, but then the rest of the year, people having to pay for their own prosthetics, not being able to access any mental health treatment, or, indeed, sleeping rough on the street.
“I’m obviously not going to take any criticism from someone who hasn’t lifted a finger to help people like I have over the years.”
