The Veterans Pledge: What now?

With election day over, we wanted to take stock of our successes over the past few weeks, and look ahead to the coming months and years of the new Labour Government.  

The Campaign  

With the support of 31,000 signatories, we successfully urged the UK’s political leaders to outline the importance of veterans and members of the Armed Forces throughout their campaigns.  

An impressive 1,170 supporters also wrote to their local candidates, adding significant pressure, and ensuring we have many new MPs in Parliament to help us build on the campaign. Over 50 candidates, spanning all major parties, publicly showed their support to the Veterans Pledge. 

Party leaders committed to delivering a range of policies, including a number from Help for Heroes own 2024 policy manifesto. On 29 June, Rishi Sunak, the Conservative Party leader, also signed the Veterans Pledge – a testament to the passion of those who supported the campaign. 

The New Government 

During their campaign, Labour committed to putting the Armed Forces Covenant fully into law and establishing an independent Armed Forces Commissioner to improve service life. They also promised veterans will have access to vital support across mental health, employment, and housing, and to scrap visa fees for non-UK veterans who have served for four or more years and their dependents. 

In recent days, Labour have announced Defence Secretary John Healey will represent veterans at Cabinet, rather than a dedicated minister. 

The King's Speech

The King's Speech on 17 July will set out the new Prime Minister's legislative agenda and his government’s upcoming priorities. We welcome the Labour Party’s election manifesto commitment to enshrine the Armed Forces Covenant fully into law - national government and a wider range of policy areas must be brought within its scope. The commitment to create an independent Armed Forces Commissioner also presents an opportunity to commission an end-to-end review of the medical discharge process.  

We are ready to work alongside policymakers to ensure all government departments recognise their responsibilities to veterans and their families. As our Veterans Pledge campaign highlighted, too many veterans are having to fight the system to get the compensation and financial support they deserve – often while battling physical or mental illness and injuries from service. The case for policy change and the removal of these unfair barriers is clear. 

This is a moment of change for the United Kingdom – and over the coming weeks and months we, at Help for Heroes, will do everything it takes to make sure the needs of veterans are met by the new Government.   

We can’t do any of this without your support. If you’re in a position to make a monthly donation, please set one up today and help get the support that veterans in our country need.