Backing the British Legion

One of the invitations I was pleased to accept at Labour Party Conference was from the Royal British Legion, which is asking general election candidates of all parties to sign up to their manifesto to care for members of the armed services - both serving and veterans.

I'm pleased to add my support to this cause because I am a passionate supporter of our servicemen and women. Defence has always been a difficult issue for some in Labour: there is a fringe element in my party (that's actually a lot stronger among Liberal Democrats) that resents money going to the defence budget. Those who believe that are just plain wrong.

Defence and national security is the first duty of a government and funding the military we have asked so much of is not up for negotiation in my book. So while we can have the debate about whether to scale back elements of our nuclear deterrent; or whether we have sufficient fighter planes or our navy is strong enough, my view is that a substantial share of any of the savings made in these areas needs to be reinvested in supporting military families.

That's clearly not the Conservative priority. They have specifically spelt out that Defence is not an area they are prepared to protect from the savage cuts they want to make. Because of what they've said quite publicly about how much they're planning on cutting that means slashing at least 10% - and I suspect nearer to 20% from the defence budget.

And everything they cut from defence won't be going back into areas of our military that still need investment - it will be going towards paying for their inheritance tax cut for the richest 2% of the country.

In the context of the poor state of military accommodation - which wasn't been given sufficient priority by either party for decades, but which is at least being put right now, the Tory inheritance tax cut for the richest 2% seems especially perverse. In fact, a far more popular policy would be an inheritance tax increase on the richest 2% of estates specifically ringfenced to complete the job Labour has started of bringing every barracks and every other military home up to scratch.

You can read the Royal British Legion's manifesto here. In the photo above I'm with Charlotte Tailby of the Legion. The photo was taken by Photoshot.