Don’t forget living hell of our veterans

ON the day we remember the brave men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice fighting for their country, we should also think of the war heroes who struggle every day of their lives with the horrors of battle.

Next time we pass a rough sleeper in the street the chances are that he or she has once fought for our freedom, willing to risk their lives so that we can enjoy ours.

But as our campaign has revealed, the neglect of our servicemen and women after their engagement in war has been scandalous.

Estimates suggest there are at least 66,000 veterans struggling with mental health problems, sleeping rough, in jail, or failing to cope with the complexities of the benefits system.

Successive Tory governments have turned a blind eye to the problem – not even bothering to keep records on the numbers who commit suicide or end up on the streets with the prospect of an early, undignified death.

The link between battle experience and PTSD has never been taken seriously enough.

It is a national disgrace that it has become so common for so many to have survived in battle only to fall into a living hell in civilian life.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn today promises to rectify this failure with five-point plan to lift the heroes from the ignominy to which so many have been abandoned.

At last the action required has been recognised and will be part of Labour’s manifesto.

Only the election of Labour Government will deliver the care and justice these heroes deserve.