Emma Lewell-Buck MP backs the creation of an Armed Forces Commissioner

This week I was proud to vote for the Armed Forces Commissioner Bill. The Commissioner will be the first ever independent champion for serving personnel and their families.

The commissioner will have wide-ranging powers as well as taking on an expanded remit of the Service Complaints Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman currently can only look at cases once they have gone through the Service Complaints System, a system they and their predecessor judged to be neither efficient, effective, or fair.

Those who risk their lives to keep us safe and defend our nation deserve the very best, the establishment of an independent Commissioner tasked with the powers to make sure they get the very best is another part of Labour’s plans to show how committed we are to renewing the nations contract with those who serve and their families.

The Tory Government hollowed out and underfunded our Armed Forces. The result has been low morale and a recruitment crisis. We know that our personnel say their decision to leave service is often the impact it has had on personal and family life.

That is why we have taken action to deliver the largest pay rise to our Armed Forces in 20 years, with no one being paid below the national living wage, as well as introducing some retention payments.

We have also scrapped over 100 outdated recruitment polices such as those that unbelievably barred people with asthma or severe acne.

For families deployed overseas we have expanded childcare before and after the school day, saving families over £3000 per year.

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Under the Tories, families reported not only uncertainty over housing allocation but once allocated, unacceptable living conditions across the defence estate, damp, mould and long-standing repairs were commonplace.

That is why we have bought military housing back into public ownership, we know there is more to do with service accommodation, but this initial step will ensure the money saved by public ownership can be reinvested into our service families.

For too long our people were not at the heart of the Government’s defence plans, under this Labour Government they always will be.