John Healey: Our Armed Forces deserve change - that will only come if you vote for it

It’s a straight choice. If you vote Conservative, nothing will change. And if you simply stay at home or vote for another party, you risk waking up tomorrow to watch Rishi Sunak walking back into Downing Street for another five years.

NHS strikes will go on, NHS waiting lists will go up, and NHS dentistry will go for good.

We’ll get Ministers who continue to put themselves before the country. And there’ll be no escape from the low-growth, high-tax failings of the last 14 years.

Over the last 14 years, the men and women serving with such pride in our UK military - including the over 10k Forces personnel based in Yorkshire and the Humber - have seen the Armed Forces hollowed out and underfunded. Service morale has slumped to record lows, Forces personnel and their families are forced to live in damp mouldy housing and the British Army is at its smallest size since Napolean.

While the UK’s 1.85 million veterans have seen Ministers make and break their promises, talk a lot but deliver little to help. Veterans support is a post-code lottery. Employment help has been halved. Homelessness is rising. Fewer than 1 in 10 have got their veterans ID card – promised to all by the end of last year – and it can’t even be used as ID for voting today.

Our British Forces are respected worldwide and Yorkshire Post readers are rightly among their fiercest supporters. They represent the values we as Brits most admire: courage, loyalty, discipline, and service.

They’re essential to our national defence, our national resilience, and our national obligations to NATO and other allies.

They serve to keep us all safe, and we must do more to support them.

Labour will always do what is needed—and spend what is needed—to defend the country and support our Forces. In the face of increasing threats, we will set out the path to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.

We will legislate for a new independent Armed Forces Commissioner as a strong champion to improve service life. And, working with veterans charities like Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes, we will put the Armed Forces covenant fully into law to ensure everyone who serves or has served is fairly treated and supported.

Our Armed Forces deserve change. They cannot afford five more years of the Conservatives.