Veterans Minister visits Nantwich

David Williams, Labour's Parliamentary Candidate for Crewe and Nantwich, hosted a meeting today with Veterans Minister, Kevan Jones MP, and local representatives of Veterans and the Services organisations.

Early in December last year, David Williams was invited by the Nantwich branch of the Royal British Legion to address their meeting at the Conservative Club on Churchyardside in Nantwich, when he signed up to their ‘Do Your Bit’ campaign.

David said, “The Nantwich branch of the Royal British Legion made me very welcome and we had a very useful and fruitful discussion. The branch raised a few issues that I promised to take back and discuss with the appropriate Government Minister. As a result of that I thought it would be more helpful if I invited Kevan Jones MP, who is the Minister for Veterans, to come to Crewe and Nantwich and meet with representatives of The Royal British Legion and other organisations representing Veterans and members of the Armed Services so that he could hear their views at first hand.”

Kevan Jones MP said, “I was delighted to accept the invitation from David Williams to visit Crewe and Nantwich and listen directly to the concerns and views of local veterans. I have listened and will take those view back. Local veterans and serving soldiers and their families can be confident that they have a strong voice in David Williams and he will represent their views and concerns directly to me.”

The Minister added, “Labour regards the health and welfare of veterans and serving personnel very seriously. We are the first Government to have a Veterans Minister. People who have served our country deserve special recognition and, for me, that means special treatment. My job in Government is to make sure that our veterans are well looked after and I work closely with first rate organisations such as the Royal British Legion, SSAFA and Help for Heroes.”

Present at the meeting were representatives from the Royal British Legion, SSAFA, The Mercian Regiment, The Air Training Corp, The TA and various individual veterans.

David Williams said, “The Royal British Legion do great work for our Armed Services Family – our serving personnel, veterans and their families. I fully support the Legion’s ‘Do Your Bit’ campaign and I signed up to support that campaign last year. I was therefore delighted to welcome the Minister to Crewe and Nantwich in order to give local Veteran and Armed Services organisations the chance to have their say and hear about the Governments plans for the future.”

He added, “I share the concern expressed at the meeting about extremist protests in Wootton Bassett. We should have nothing but admiration for what that town does to recognise those brave people who have lost their lives and it is wrong for anyone to try to hijack their efforts for their own political gain. I was delighted that the Minister confirmed that the Government had stopped the planned protest. These extremist groups do not represent the vast majority of British Muslims who contribute a great deal to the armed forces and have done so for many decades.”

David concluded by saying, “I felt that we had a very productive and interesting discussion and I look forward to working closely with the Legion and others in future.”

Pictured: Kevan Jones MP, Minister for Veterans, with David Williams and the veterans who attended today's meeting.