As many Members will have gathered now, I have a passion for defence, having served as a young soldier in the Army and spent most of my adult life in and around the defence arena. I have also been fortunate to sit on the Armed Forces Bill Select Committee. I pay tribute to all Members across the Committee for the way in which we worked together for the good of our armed forces; it has been an enjoyable and eye-opening experience. Today I want to discuss the amendments relating to the armed forces covenant, which, as hon. Members will see, is very personal to me and I think will massively support our armed forces.
Prior to being an MP, I was an armed forces champion. I got to see the difficulties that regions could have in trying to put forward the armed forces covenant, and how much it would impact different people. Enshrining it in law is a massive step forward. I also have first-hand experience of the benefits of the armed forces covenant, and I think it is right to draw the attention of the Committee to the fact that I received treatment at one of the trauma units that were brought forward through the armed forces covenant.
I have spoken in the House in the past about when I was shot and the after-effects, which ended up in me wanting to take my own life. Having been told that I was no longer the Army’s problem when I had left and had to fund treatment myself, I was not in a good place.
The Committee can imagine, then, how happy I was to hear about the armed forces covenant. I felt that somebody actually cared. Sadly, it came too late for me, because I had to battle those demons for 15 years before I could get away from the problems that I faced. I thank God that I came through that dark period.
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I speak about this issue with experience, having come through it, and I wear the scars. I would never have been able to speak about my experience when they were not scars but open wounds. It was too painful. Nobody would have got close to me. I know that many of my friends are now battling with open wounds. Many have sadly lost that battle—some of my friends, who I knew well, are no longer with us. They leave behind family, friends—an empty space that was once filled with laughter, joy, good times and fond memories.
The number of suicides among armed forces personnel and veterans is already a major concern. I have seen it across all the services. The Rifles, which is made up of my former regiment, are seeing a huge number of riflemen lost to suicide—two in the last few weeks. This is just not acceptable.
I pay tribute to General Patrick Sanders, with whom, I have to declare, I served. Not only has he shown his vulnerability by speaking out about his personal battles that he faced after a hard time, but he has written to all
the riflemen to say, “Look after each other”. By showing this vulnerability at a senior level, in my mind and according to those in the armed forces community I have spoken to, he has shown true leadership. I want to honour all the service personnel, veterans and anybody who is supporting the armed forces, because they are looking after their colleagues and doing what General Sanders has asked.
I regularly see, on Facebook and in some of the groups I am in, All Call Signs alerts to the vast amount of people who are rallying round their brothers and sisters in desperate times. This is happening on a very regular basis. They do this in the form of things such as veterans breakfasts, one of which I will be attending this weekend in Wolverhampton. There are many, many outstanding organisations, one of which is Elysium Memorial, and I will announce shortly a fundraising event that I will be doing to support its mission to raise awareness of veterans’ suicide.
Let me go back to the beginning of my speech, when I talked about how I felt abandoned. When I was able, through the covenant, to access the healthcare that I needed, that made me feel that people cared. Not only did it give me the treatment that I needed—I had been funding it myself—but it made me feel that I was not forgotten. We need to try to put that into our minds, because we all see what happens when someone is shot or blown up—we see the wounds that they face—but we do not see the battles that people face in the mind when they feel they are forgotten and abandoned and that nobody cares. For a veteran, this can mean the difference between winning and losing that battle in their mind. When they lose the battle, we talk about how they have taken their life, which is a horrible place to be.
To summarise, the armed forces covenant should have been enshrined in law decades ago. It is good to stand up in this place and see that everyone supports our armed forces. I am not talking about a few years ago, while the Conservatives have been in government; this should have been done years and years ago. Every Government have had an opportunity to do this. If we had done it earlier, we would have been in a far better place than we are now to support our armed forces and our veterans. It is a long journey. I thank the Minister and everybody involved in getting things to where we are now. I ask that this is not the destination but merely a checkpoint along the way of making sure that we can honour our service personnel and veterans as they truly deserve.