Help for Heroes and Fighting With Pride meet MP on LGBT rights

Help for Heroes joined forces with Fighting With Pride, the leading organisation for LGBT+ veterans, to meet Crispin Blunt MP this week. Blunt, who has represented Reigate since 1997, is a former army captain and has been a leading voice in Westminster for LGBT+ rights since coming out as gay in 2013.

This meeting came at a crucial time in the campaign for justice for LGBT+ veterans who were wrongfully discharged, as Lord Etherton’s review examining the experience of LGBT+ veterans affected by the pre-2000 ban on homosexuality in the Armed Forces is expected to report to Government later this year. Mr Blunt was keen to raise awareness of the review within Parliament and to support its upcoming recommendations, which is expected to include an official apology from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and financial reparations.

We also discussed the recent discovery that the records of disciplinary action taken against those accused of misconduct under this ban were destroyed by military police in 2010. The MOD has stated that it received legal advice that such files should be erased from service records. Although the basis of this advice and under whose authority it was carried out remains unclear.

Following this meeting, Mr Blunt has called upon the MOD to publish this advice and to offer assurances that the deletion of these records will not adversely affect any future claims for compensation, restoration of lost pension entitlements, or admissions of fault from the MOD.