Attacking soldier will be specific crime under Labour, says Jim Murphy
Defence spokesman says party would try to get extra protection for armed forces in defence reform bill to combat discrimination
Attacking a soldier would be a specific criminal offence under a Labour government, the party’s defence spokesman has said.
Jim Murphy said the party would try to get the law changed to make sure the armed forces are treated with more respect. This would mean soldiers get extra protection against discrimination like some disabled, LGBT and ethnic minority victims of crime.
Speaking at the party’s conference in Brighton, the shadow defence secretary, said: “Today still too many of our forces continue to face discrimination, whether in the workplace or when they go about their daily lives.
“It’s sad that those who fight for our country might need the protection of our laws, but some do.”
Murphy said Labour would table amendments to the defence reform bill so that “for the first time ever it would be a specific criminal offence to attack members of our armed forces, ensuring they are treated with the dignity that their bravery deserves”.
Murphy also criticised the coalition for holding down pay for members of the armed forces, saying a government should “never cut the pay of the bravest to fund a tax cut for the richest”. He said Labour wanted to make the military “feel at ease in our country and at home in our party”.
“We are the only party to have enshrined the principles of the covenant in our rule book and we now offer a new military membership rate. Some said it wouldn’t work – but we should all be so proud that we now have more than 800 new military members who have joined our party,” he said.
Murphy also set out Labour’s philosophy that military action should be a “last resort” but Britain should always be prepared to intervene if necessary,
Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, echoed this call as he told the conference that Labour rejects “kneejerk isolationism” just like it opposes “kneejerk intervention”. He made the case against a new isolationism springing up on the right, with anti-Europe, anti-immigration and anti-aid attitudes. Labour is a party of “progressive internationalism,” he said.
